While state governments seem to be doing their utmost to attack TAFE teachers and employees, there is a broader social issue that all should consider: the impacts of changes on existing and potential workers who are being disadvantaged by the Government's long-term under-funding of TAFE.

TAFE has been the dependable provider of quality work-related skills training. Sure, there are other providers that you can pay for and receive a Certificate for turning up for a week or two at a course - but does anyone ever believe that the learning in these courses is of the same quality as is available from TAFE? How can anyone seriously gain the knowledge to be a competent Trainer in two weeks, or an Occupational Health and Safety Officer in ten days?

The federal and state governments have given a licence to private colleges to accredit people as having attained the necessary competencies - but it is nonsense to imagine that the value gained is always equivalent.

Think of all of the trades and occupations that TAFE is involved in teaching and perhaps you will start worrying also where the next generation of employees will gain their skills. Then factor in those employees who are displaced from a job and work at getting skilled to seek work in a different occupation - how many people do we know who use TAFE to support their continued employment?

— Posted by Margie Frye

As the TAFE4All campaign gears up towards a review of the Victorian Government's TAFE changes, the campaign continues to gain momentum in 2010, fighting to return TAFE education to the hands of all Victorian students - not just those who can afford increased fees.

The TAFE4All campaign is about to get even bigger and louder. If you're not sure how to use your voice, click the Take Action button on the website homepage.

Those of you who have subscribed to the TAFE4All website now number several thousand - and rising. If you haven't signed up to stay up-to-date with the campaign,you can do it by clicking 'Subscribe to updates' at the homepage.

Sign up, stay informed and voice your opinion. In the lead up to the review, let's show that we will not accept increased education fees to be dumped onto students who can't afford it.

And in what is a State Election year, let's make it clear we will vote against the changes if they are not repealed.

Brumby Government spokespeople still equate "Skill Reform" with "increased training places" and "encouraging people to take up Vocational Education and Training". Yet I have not yet heard anyone explain satisfactorily the mechanism that would actually translate Skill Reform's sharp fee increases, reduced or abolished concessions and HECS style millstones into increased enrolments.

Introduction of higher fees for Diplomas at the Melbourne metropolitan TAFE campus I work at appear to have actually cut our enrolments by about 50% - the numbers for our Diploma are about half what they normally are.

Already last year the TAFE was acting defensively to try to protect itself from anticipated hefty falls in enrolments, despite government ministers claiming skill reform would increase the numbers accessing TAFE education.

The department I work in voted with its feet. Anticipating sharply reduced funding, it decided to head down a slippery slope. All our year-long subjects (which allowed clusters of competencies to be done in parallel as they are actually practised in industry) have been replaced by semester-long subjects which combine the competencies into smaller clusters.

Have you got a car or bike? Then email your postal address to Anna to grab your free "Stop TAFE fee hikes" bumper sticker and show your support for affordable, quality TAFE education.

THEN, send us a photo of where you've proudly displayed your sticker and we'll publish it here at the TAFE4All website. Let people know you don't support increased TAFE fees and abolished study concessions - AND make your car/bike famous. You can't lose. 

— Posted by Anna Kelsey-Sugg

Ongoing pressure and lack of confidence and finance are just some of the barriers faced by many single mothers wanting to return to study, and wanting to provide our children with opportunities.

The daily grind: Get kids up. Breakfast - who's having what. Remind kids of before school routine. Make the beds. Lunch boxes. Remind kids of their activities/responsibilities. Make sure they brush teeth, hair and wash face. School run. Washing. Cleaning. Cooking. Shop for food (no luxury items).

Pay the bills. Budget. Take the bins out. Recycle. Dishes (lots of single mums live without dishwashers). Go to work/school (sometimes both in one day). Pick kids up from wherever - if you are lucky enough to find affordable care for your kids. School bags out of the car. Go into cold dark empty house. No dinner yet - start thinking. Kids tired and hungry. Pets are at your feet. Bills/mail to sort. Unpack school bags. Help kids with homework while dinner is cooking.

Dinner with kids. Bath/shower kids. Organise kids into PJs - settle them down for quiet time. It's not quality time, it's stressful because you want to sit down and relax for a minute too. Bring washing in/out some times at 9-10pm. Arrange clothes on horse overnight so kids have clean uniform for next day. Kids to bed (finally). Tidy up kitchen. Start your own homework.

Ongoing responsibilities. Car maintenance - oil, water, brake fluid. Home maintenance. Changing light globes. Fixing heaters/hot water service. Cleaning gutters to stop the roof from leaking. Chop/stack the firewood. Technical things - computers, DVD players, TV, antennas. Garden maintenance. Walk the dog. Mow the grass. Weed the garden. Take the bins out.

Remember we are the tooth fairy, Easter bunny and Santa - putting trampolines, swing sets, bikes together at midnight.

Check out our new TAFE 4 All video on the difference between public and private for TAFE students.

Click here to play.

The new Brumby ‘skills reform' is bad education policy.

It is meant to make the Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector more ‘efficient' (read 'competitive'). But changing the education system into a money-making exercise is bad for students and eventually bad for our society.

It's effectively a voucher system; the government will allot a subsidy per student that a training institution will receive if a student enrols in their course. It pits government-funded TAFEs against private training organisations. The government argues that the system is good because it offers increased competition (which is meant to keep course costs low) and increased effectiveness (because people can choose the course that suits them best).

But when providers know they are guaranteed a subsidy for every student they attract, there is more incentive to increase costs and less incentive to provide high-quality education.

This policy change follows a global trend. But what has happened overseas after the introduction of a voucher system?

Before 1999 the Labour-National coalition government of New Zealand introduced market forces to the tertiary sector with a voucher system. This was criticised for lowering the quality of training services, large numbers of students chose popular courses and graduated with skills in areas where there was no job shortage, resulting in an fall in income levels because there were no jobs available for the newly trained.

Premier Brumby has been on a bit of a rampage in the last year, killing off our art with legislation that stabs at the heart of Melbourne's thriving art scene by abolishing government-funded places for TAFE students. Students with equivalent or higher qualifications are now forced to pay full fees, which many are unable to afford. This hurts the arts because many people study art when they've matured and come into themselves, usually after having studied and worked in another industry.

According to the government's skills reform website, the new TAFE funding structure will create ‘more opportunities for training throughout your adult life and flexible fee arrangements'.

But this couldn't be further from the truth.

In fact, many students will have to start paying full fees if they don't meet certain criteria. Essentially what the government is doing is opening the TAFE sector to competition with private education institutions.

How much TAFE costs today depends on which basket you fall into. Take my TAFE diploma, Professional Writing and Editing. Before the changes, government-subsidised places were a maximum of $877 a year or $55 for concession-card holders. Now, if you're under twenty or have no qualification at the same level or higher, fees for the diploma have increased to $2000.

My name is Jo Fogarty and I'm the new vice president for TAFE at the Australian Education Union. Let me say first of all that I wish everyone a healthy, happy and fulfilling 2010.

Last year I spoke at a conference discussing, from a TAFE teacher's perspective, the impact of the Brumby Government's skills "reforms" on TAFE teachers and students. (You can read my blog post from the conference here: http://bit.ly/8X8L2).

While my role has changed, (as TAFE vice president my job is now to lead the TAFE4All campaign), my bewilderment at the government's Skill "Reform" agenda has not.
We need to continue the TAFE4All campaign in 2010, and we need to be as loud and as active as ever.

As I write, many TAFE students will be enrolling, or preparing to enrol, and facing substantial fee increases. Students enroling in diplomas and advanced diplomas who are concession holders will find that they are not eligible for the $55 concession rate and that, instead, the fee has hiked to around $2000 - or even higher.

Students will be faced with the decision to take out loans, or not to enrol at all.

Imagine the strain that having to find this extra money will put on individuals and families. It means some students will be unable to attend TAFE.