I have been teaching sessionally at various TAFEs in the last 10 years.

Currently, I am teaching ESL at RMIT (5 years) and AMES (7 years) as a sessional staff member.

I have never been made permanent, let alone been offered a contract.

As a sessional teacher, I work as hard and as long (almost full time hours in total) as those ongoing, and yet get paid a lot less. Just like other sessional teachers, I am always chucked out of the door when enrolment numbers are down.

At the time of writing this, I will have no more work next year due to changes that are unfavourable to TAFE and the federal and state government favouring small, private RTOs who offer courses that are sub-standard.

Although sub-standard, students would rather enrol in those courses because they are cheap.

These recent changes make me angry because it demeans the integrity of the teaching profession and undermines the qualifications and training TAFE teachers have done.

This has to stop to give all TAFE teachers the due respect they deserve.

— Posted by Alex Vista, TAFE teacher, RMIT and AMES

As a mature worker I want to update my IT skills in order to remain competitive in the labour market. I was informed that a basic level TAFE course now costs $2,500.

The $2,500 cost is expensive. Not having the money will limit my education, my work and my life choices.

Short courses, as an alternative, are also expensive and do not address all my learning needs.

I believe that fair, affordable access to TAFE courses enriches people’s lives and people’s skills, thus benefiting the whole community.

This is why TAFE courses need to remain accessible and affordable for all.

It should be a basic right to add to your skills — and with computers especially. It's a skill-set listed on so many job criteria and that constantly needs updating — especially for people who are, like me, around 50 and haven’t had computer training in earlier education.

With a broad understanding I can be a better employee, but I’m finding I’m not getting anywhere. Financially I have to work out how this is possible.

The long, proud history of dedicated and highly skilled workers returning to teach the next generation of workers because of their commitment and passion for their vocation is under threat.

The Victorian TAFE system has been a cornerstone of Victorian development and growth for over 155 years.

The establishment of the Sandhurst Mechanics Institute in 1856 on the goldfields of Bendigo, and later in 1860 the Ballarat Mechanics Institute, were the beginnings of a long history of adult public education in the state that has helped build the futures of hundreds of thousands of Victorians.

The modern TAFE system has survived because of support for and a commitment to public education by various governments over those 155 years. Over the last 10 years that commitment has started to falter.

The Baillieu Government has decided that it will support private, for-profit businesses to provide education and training in competition to TAFE.

Despite the fact that since the introduction of the Skills Reform Policy 16 of the 18 TAFE's now operate at a deficit, the Government has slashed funding to TAFE to fund the expansion of the private, for-profit business sector.

It is stating the obvious, but the private, for-profit sector is involved in education and training to make money.

TAFE has been here to make a future for individuals and Victoria.

When there are no more profits to be made out of adult education and training in Victoria, the private businesses will move on and go and make money elsewhere.

If the Baillieu Government continues to do nothing to support the public TAFE system and fails to addresses the crisis created by the use of market-based mechanisms in public education and training, then who do they think will be here when the profits dry up and those who are only interested in making a buck move on?

Highly skilled, professional and dedicated TAFE teachers are being made redundant because the government has taken money from TAFE to give to for-profit businesses.

Minister Hall must stop the Skills Reform madness and make an open and public commitment to all Victorians that he will stop taking public money off the public TAFE system to give to private companies to increase their profits.

The public TAFE system has survived for 155 years. It is now up to Minister Hall to show some courage and ask Victorians about the future of TAFE for the next 155 years.

The Victorian public must be included in an open review of the current Skills Reform Policy and the future of the public TAFE system.

On November 15 the Preston Leader ran a front page story about the Preston Lions Football Club's plan for solving its $100,000 debt crisis. With its "gentleman's entertainment" evenings not raising enough funds, it's devised a plan to enrol as many people as possible in a VET course so they can get $1000 per student.

Somehow this government-funded vocational sports and recreation course is so cheap to run that the club pockets a $1000 "incentive" (read: profit) for every graduating student, described as a "win-win" by the club president.

This appalling story smacks of everything that's wrong with the vocational education sector in this State.

Is anyone going to tell these students that they will have to wait 15 years to get another funded Certificate IV qualification?

Minister Hall must stop the wholesale attack on the quality of vocational education and training in Victoria.

Hall will pass the buck by telling the world that he inherited the Skills Reform Policy from the previous government.

The Victorian Skills Commission will pass the buck by blaming poor advice and lack of oversight from Skills Victoria.

Skills Victoria will blame the VRQA for failing to regulate the RTO involved.

VRQA will blame the lack of resources they require to effectively oversee and regulate the massive number of RTOs in Victoria now.

It's time to stop passing the buck and to start fixing the problem — not the blame.

Minister Hall has the power to put a stop to the crisis called Skills Reform, which is providing a platform to cut TAFE funding and render hundreds of TAFE teachers' jobs redundant.

Hall must act now to save the status and credibility of Victoria's crumbling vocational education and training sector.

Our Institute has raised our class numbers to 15 from 12 per group this year. Apart from the inability to give each student teacher/learning time, we are working with portable power tools, electric machinery and sharp and hazardous hand tools. It is only a matter of time before someone gets injured severely because there are too many students to look after in each group and teachers are having to spread themselves too thin.

The other concern is the amount of students who would normally have been able to enrol in our Certificate II programs who may have completed a Cert II in Food Handling at McDonalds, or completed VCE, and are now ineligible for government funding. They now have to pay in excess of $3600 to do a Cert II Pre-Apprenticeship with no guarantees of a job outcome, and obviously no one is going to pay this much to do a Cert II.

We are being asked to bring our apprentices in for six weeks per year instead of eight weeks to overcome the problems associated with administration and ongoing teacher shortage. We are operating at a level of nearly 55% ongoing at present, and our sessionals do not do any of the admin or student maintenance. All they do is teach and go home and we (ongoing teachers) are left to complete everything else.

We are ready to implode here. If it gets any worse I can see teachers either leaving or ending up so stressed that they won't be able to cope.

— Posted by Steve Lee, Program Coordinator, NMIT

I am a Program Coordinator at NMIT. Last night while travelling on the 86 tram, I was appalled to overhear a young man bragging about his fabulous new job.

This is roughly verbatim his boast:

It's the easiest job ever. I get paid $50 to ring people and tell them that the Government is giving away free Diploma courses. I tell them they don't have to pay a thing; they can do any Diploma course they want entirely online, and the Government will pay the full fees.

Every person who signs up means I get $50. I've already made over $1,000! Do you want me to get you in on it?

This is the system the Government has created: so easy to rort. It's money made at the expense of teachers like me and my colleagues.

I decided not to challenge him, but instead got off the tram despairing that education about which I care so much has been so thoughtlessly and recklessly commodified.

— Posted by Catherine Davison, Program Coordinator, Study Skills Advisory Service, NMIT

Currently I am a program coordinator at a large metro TAFE.

I co-ordinate the delivery of four different courses from Cert IV to Diploma. In 2012 I will have 13 groups of students with an expectation of 25 students per group. Staffing is equivalent to seven EFT staff (including myself), and the institute is insisting delivery be done by 30% sessional staff. This increases the administrative duties to engage and induct each sessional staff member.

Discussion has been raised that staff redundancies may be evident in 2012. Already I have experienced this, as a staff member has taken leave without pay from October 2011 until February 2012 and replacement for that person was not granted. Current staff are expected to pick up the duties of that teacher, sessional staff cover the teaching aspect but all other duties are done by staff available.

This is during the time when prospective applicants are interviewed and enrolled and current students finalised. Compliance with Quality requirements places emphasis on these duties.

Fortunately our teaching hours are set at 730 per year, but the demands from students and their increasing needs mean teachers are constantly providing extra support. Our delivery hours are less than the nominal hours for each unit, creating situations where students need support.

Staffing is calculated on delivery hours and not nominal hours, yet fees are set against nominal hours. Tutorials and individual meetings are timetabled to meet the hours.

In our classes we have students who have paid the highest level of fees sitting beside another student who has paid concessional rates. This anomaly is difficult when demands are made. Although we employ the highest level of sessional teachers from Industry, they only attend on the hours they are teaching and are not available for students for follow-up with concerns. When paying such high fees, students are entitled to better service.

The fees under the Skills Reform has seen us lose high-quality applicants who cannot afford fees. We had to cease a Diploma because of fee costs. We are now introducing a Cert III, as fees will be more accessible for those who have no other qualification, but changes the cohort of students we will be teaching.

Staff will be expected to forgo teaching Diploma units, which they are highly trained to do under Vocational Competency, to teach Cert III. The decision for Cert III is to attract students who otherwise would not be accepted into our Cert IV and create a pathway.

— Posted by Marg

It is now clear that a review of the vocational education sector in Victoria is needed urgently.

In late October, the story broke that Holmesglen TAFE made a $6.5 million loan -- that is, public money -- to a private training provider. Holmesglen signed a deal to lend $6.5 million to cash-strapped provider Carrick, with an option to convert that to a 40 per cent stake in the company.

An Auditor-General's Office investigation has found the financial arrangement was outside Holmesglen's legal authority. More than that, it also found that neither Skills Victoria nor the Victorian Skills Commission (VSC), the peak advisory body to the minister, have the leadership skills required to effectively govern TAFE in the new competitive VET environment.

As a case study of TAFE governance arrangements, the report paints a grim picture of Victoria's management of the VET sector over the past decade.

The report noted that consistency [in VET] is established through compulsory compliance with national standards called the Australian Quality Training Framework (AQTF), monitored by ASQA. But TAFE teachers have known for years that the AQTF standards do nothing to ensure that students receive quality teaching and learning.

A recent survey found that 77% of TAFE teachers believe that the quality of education has fallen since the introduction of the Skills Reform Policy, which forced TAFE to compete against private training companies on the open market.

Now the Government has announced that TAFE funding will be cut to pay for the funding blow-outs that the AEU predicted would occur when the flawed Skills Reform Policy was forced on the sector. In other words, the Government has used taxpayers' money to subsidise private companies to make millions of dollars in profit by offering often dodgy training in areas with little employment prospects.

TAFE, on the other hand, is still trying to meet its obligation of providing accredited training by fully qualified teachers that meets significant skills shortages -- on an ever-shrinking budget.

It is now obvious that those responsible for supervising and managing this crucial public service clearly do not have what it takes. Skills Minister Peter Hall must acknowledge that the VET system in Victoria has failed to ensure a vibrant and successful public TAFE.

Minister Hall must honour his pre-election promise of a full review of the VET sector and stop applying bandaids to the failed market-based experiment in education and training.

— Posted by Greg Barclay, AEU deputy vice president, TAFE

The Gillard Government has stepped in to stop universities from poaching TAFE students, giving much needed relief to institutes reeling from cuts and competition.

Higher Education Minister Chris Evans yesterday announced that he'd be putting a cap on the number of diplomas and advanced diplomas that universities can offer from 2012.

He said the university sector should not "expand at the expense of TAFEs and other vocational education and training providers" when the caps come off degree courses next year.

VET providers and universities should complement each other in the courses they offer, he said.

That is good news at last for TAFEs. It won't stop the poaching but it should slow it down and end the open slather for students.

We have seen a worrying increase in the number of VET courses being offered by universities, which enjoy student funding up to 50% higher than TAFEs. Indeed, it was an issue flagged up in the Essential Services Commission report last month.

Changes to TAFE funding announced this week are already resulting in TAFE institutes revealing the need to offer staff redundancies.

On October 25, Minister Peter Hall told State Parliament that there would need to be “some changes” to funding for vocational education and training (VET) in Victoria.

That has proven to be a gross understatement.

Minister Hall defended his decision by declaring that the Government has taken advice from the Essential Services Commission (ESC) report into funding and fees in VET.

He said: “Some of the recommendations have been put in place immediately to ensure that the full benefit of the recommendations is experienced for 2012 rather than waiting for a further 12 months…”.

Minister Hall chose to ignore the advice from the ESC that the current system is becoming “deleterious to … the value of qualifications and … the administration of public funding”.

In fact, the ESC said quality was one of the constant issues raised at their forums and emphasised the need for action to ensure the integrity of the system in Victoria was addressed.

The need for “regulatory structures designed to provide confidence” was a central message of the ESC report.

But Minister hall has decided to ignore this, instead choosing to implement just two of the report’s 43 recommendations: the two that provide the Government with an excuse to cut funding to public TAFE.

The TAFE funding cuts will result in job losses for teachers to try and patch up the flawed attempt to use competition ideology in our public TAFE system.