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.

THANK YOU from all of us here at the TAFE4All campaign.

As students, teachers, parents and concerned community members you have joined TAFE4All to stand up for what is fair.

You have spoken out against what is unfair: the Victorian Government increasing TAFE fees, scrapping study concessions and forcing TAFEs to compete with private colleges for funding - when Victorian TAFEs are already the lowest funded in the country.

Through the TAFE4All website, Facebook group and Twitter page, you have raised your voices and helped get the message to government that its changes to your TAFEs are unacceptable.

And you have been heard.

The TAFE4All campaign has hit television, radio, the newspapers and the online world. The public is listening.

As the government's review of the TAFE changes draws closer, the campaign will accelerate and we'll need you to join in.

Next year we'll be asking for more of you to share how the TAFE changes are affecting you, to comment online and to spread word about the campaign.

The decision to increase the TAFE fees will mean that more people will have less say over how they live their lives.

The decision to train or retrain in order to work in an environment where you see a future is a really important right, which is going to be taken away by these changes.

I have friends who are currently at TAFE who would never have been able to study if they had enrolled in 2010. Instead they would have had to stay unemployed or work in low-paid, temporary jobs that weren't going anywhere.

I believe that everyone should have a right to free or at least affordable education and to pursue careers or interests at any time in their lives.

I have been a TAFE student for about six years now - four years part-time and one year full-time - studying Aged Care and Home and Community Care (Cert 3) and now Professional Writing and Editing (Cert 4).

This has meant not being able to work full time - so I have appreciated having excellent, regular tuition at an affordable cost.

I have held down casual work around study and even knocked back quite a lot of callouts for the sake of keeping up my attendance to class. Now the prospect of having to pay high fees and incur a HECS debt if I choose to go on to a Diploma level is something I dread.

While I want to develop my skills further and give myself some chance at employment in the future (I am 58) I don't want a debt to worry about paying back. TAFE has been for me not just training and a regular social group but the justification to get on and do things to break the unemployment doldrums and anxiety that goes with being out of a regular job.

I can't really imagine a life without study now - of recognition and of meeting goals - being single and without children or close friends in the district. I tree-changed 10 years ago and work, work, work has meant there's not been much time for making new friends - so it is also very important to maintain social contact and interaction through classes.

We are concerned as Career Facilitators about the advice that we are giving our young people....and our own sons and daughters.

Some of our students have completed Cert III Hospitality and Retail Certificates in large scale organisations that get financial incentives from the government for signing students up in this current year.

These young people will no longer have access to their own hopes, dreams and aspirations as the government in its wisdom has taken away their right to their own pathway....

Who has told who about the enormous fees our children will have to pay?

Low SES families from fringe metropolitan suburbs, are going to be:

• Unemployed
• Unskilled, and
• Disillusioned

Has the government thought about this?

What about women who are trying to return to work from being a parent? Women who are trying to retrain after having children?

There's no good avenue for this now.

There are lots of mums out there like me and, you know what? We don't put ourselves first. I won't spend money at TAFE; on me getting ahead before I spend money on my children.

If I paid increased TAFE fees I'd have to rearrange the family budget - and spending that sort of money on my education would be hard to justify. Where do I find the dollars? From the family food? From the kids sports lessons?

I work in a TAFE assisting mature learners and sole parents. At this time of the year, I'm flat out meeting with potential students for 2010 to find appropriate course options, and navigate application procedures and help them plan for study including the financial implications.

What a nightmare it's been this year!

I pick up the phone receiver in one hand and have a pin in the other, ready to burst their ‘study fantasy' bubble, if need be. I steel myself for when we get to the bit about the financial implications of various course options. After breaking the bad news, weighing up the pros and cons, mature students with so much to offer in skill shortage areas are choosing certificate IV over diploma level qualifications ($120 vs $...12,000).

The response to the new fees is absolute dismay and disbelief. I have to field questions such as, "Why would they do this?", "Who is responsible?", "How can I improve my life?", "I don't believe it!", "You must be mistaken", "I really thought I might be able to do it".

I completed my Diploma of Welfare studies at the Geelong TAFE in 2004. I was a single mother and dependant on welfare payments at the time of my decision to choose this course as a career path.

I also had a clear interest and desire to obtain employment in this sector when I had completed my studies.

If the fee changes, which are now imposed, were in place when I was considering applying, I know that I would not have been able to proceed with an application. The reality is that I would not have been in a financial position to do so and I suspect this would be the case for many people who access TAFE.

The course I did provided all the students with the knowledge, skills and values required to perform competently as professional social welfare workers. There was a balance between theory and practice, providing classroom and community-based learning environments, that made my transition into the workforce realistic and manageable.

My teachers' dedication, their support to delivering an honest, realistic, hands-on curriculum, and their depth of knowledge, experience and understanding of the welfare sector was invaluable.

I will be forever grateful to the TAFE system, for I gained employment in Child Protection DHS Footscray. I am now a senior worker in the Long Term Out of Home Care Youth Team.

I also attribute my achievement of being awarded Child Protection Worker for North Western Metropolitan Area in 2007 to the standard of their course, teaching skills, professionalism, knowledge and skills imparted to me.

My ability to participate in and complete the TAFE course, and then gain employment, assisted my family and myself -  financially, socially and emotionally.