VET & TAFE campusreview. com. au
TAFE SA in crisis
The state government is cutting funds from public training providers, just when employment is becoming more scarce.
By Malcolm King
Like a drunken hoon in an underpowered car, the South Australian Government is speeding towards disaster, with the public bouncing around in the back.
South Australia is in serious economic trouble and TAFE SA, the key provider of training for the state’ s next generation, is about to become the government’ s next victim.
A recent News Corp report stated that about one-third of TAFE SA’ s jobs will be slashed by 2018. State government expenditure on the VET sector will plummet by $ 94 million, to $ 251 million.
A leaked parliamentary briefing note prepared for the skills minister, Gail Gago, states TAFE’ s number of full-time jobs will fall by 814. This follows the June Budget announcement that almost 300 TAFE SA jobs will be axed over the next 12 months.
The cuts will coincide with the closure of Holden’ s Elizabeth plant in 2017 and the loss of thousands of jobs across the automotive sector. About 50 per cent of Holden staff have no formal qualifications. Workers on the Air Warfare Destroyer project will also begin to be laid off then, if the submarine project does not proceed.
In 2012, TAFE SA was made an independent statutory authority, with the chief executive reporting to the board. Of the seven TAFE SA board members, only one has education management experience. Only one other member has organisational change experience. We see the same faces, the same carpet bag of fashionable ideologies and the same capability gaps.
Over the last two years, there has been a conga line of chief executives. Acting chief executive Miriam Silva is warming the seat. She replaced Jeff Gunningham, who came, saw and left within a year. Chief operating officer David Royle took the helm for a while, when Elaine Bensted left to become chief executive of Zoos South Australia in 2012.
Gunningham said it was crucial that the performance of governing bodies be reviewed on a regular basis within their legal frameworks.
“ In the case of the TAFE SA board, this is the TAFE SA Act 2012 and the Public Corporations Act 1993,” he said.“ To my knowledge, the performance of the Board of TAFE SA has never been evaluated.
“ The premier has introduced a review of all state government boards and committees, which is much needed... There needs to be a significant amount of independence to the review process, rather than the board simply going through a form of self-evaluation, which they submit to the state government.”
Gunningham also told a Melbourne forum recently that bureaucratic bungling and an obsession with the bottom line degraded VET training and threatened the existence of public colleges.
“ TAFE in Australia has taken more than 100 years to evolve into a world-class system, but the way things are going, it will be brought to its knees in just a few short years,” he said.
There are allegations that some TAFE SA teachers have been asked to reduce contact hours, jeopardising student outcomes, quality and teacher employment.
TAFE SA’ s share of the Skills for All market is 53 per cent and falling due to the rise in private providers. Whilst some of the private training organisations have been good, many come from the
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