I am a secondary teacher at public school in outer eastern Melbourne. Many of the students at my school are not from wealthy backgrounds, and our school offers a number of VET-based courses as part of its senior school subjects.

I worry that our students are undertaking a subject such as VET Music or VET IT as a sixth subject at VCE without understanding how this might affect them in the future. If after they are 20 years old they decide they need to undertake vocationally orientated education, they will face a massively increased level of fees due to the fact they already have a Certificate 1 or 2 level qualification after doing the VET subjects back in high school.

The government has made virtually no effort to educate staff or students about the impacts of these changes and instead has sought to cover up or play down the impact this will have on the future options of students, particularly those from poorer backgrounds.

On a secondary note, I am personally affected by these changes. If I wanted to get my Certificate 4 in Training and Assessment to allow me to teach outside of schools, I would now face fees of thousands of dollars. This is a path many teachers have taken before me which I am now unlikely to pursue. This is a Certificate that I am meant to obtain if I teach VET subjects at school.

I believe that the impact of the TAFE changes has been ill thought through in relation to effects on both the teaching and the undertaking of VET subjects in secondary schools.

I also believe that the changes are very ill-advised in that they undermine our proud record of publicly funded TAFEs in Victoria.