08 February 2010
Making TAFEs work or making them worse?
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.
While increased competition kept course costs low in city areas, regional areas suffered.
Private country providers were able to offer a small range of popular courses at lower cost than government providers who had more expensive fees, often because they offered a wider range of courses, some of which were less popular but essential for society.
Vouchers aren't going to help Victoria's TAFE system, or address the skills shortage. We need long-term government investment in our TAFEs to ensure specialised subjects stay funded, disadvantaged students get access to the courses they need and staff maintain good teaching conditions.
— Posted by Julia Collin
This vouchers system means there is lack of fixed funds to an institute which prevents the TAFE in undertaking any long range planning or staffing. In planning for a 'worst case scenario' in financial terms and competing with the funding models that are sending private colleges broke, TAFEs have to cut corners. Class sizes are bigger, if classes drop in size, the delivery hours decrease. There is less administrative assistance and teacher workloads increase as the pressure to provide individualised learning plans increases. The system is being run down, student satisfaction is decreasing and students are not gaining the depth of skill development they need to work.
Margie Frye, Melbourne, 09 FEB 2010 10:30
Good points Julia. Because they subscribe to a rather old-fashioned economic theory, the Government's advisers think that by adding price flexibility supply and demand will settle at an equilibrium. Even if one still actually believed this, what are you going to do about time lags? It takes time for providers to set up new courses/places and in the meantime students should study something right? Well, not under the current system simply because if you gain a qualification at the desired level whilst waiting for a place to become available you are quite likely to lose your eligibility for government support.
Justin, Melbourne, 08 FEB 2010 17:09
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