TAFE SA faces deep cuts, bleak outlook

As the state faces much tighter funding for training, fears of even more blows to a struggling jobs market emerge. By Malcolm King. TAFE SA faces massive budget cuts, course closures and redundancies due to over delivering Skills for All funded courses last year, media reports state. TAFE SA and private providers reached the SA government target of 100,000 additional Skills for All enrolments three years ahead of schedule. As of September last 2013, there were 145,800 enrolments, causing a large blow-out in the state’s training budget. Under the original Skills for All program, 400 Certificate I and II courses were free, about 500 Certificate III and IV courses attracted subsidies of up to 80 per cent, and 300 diploma and advanced diploma courses allowed students to defer their payments. South Australia will now move from the full subsidising of training to re-organising course offerings into five funding bands, with only one to remain fee free. Training courses will be ranked according to their industry demand and projected job openings. Details are sketchy, but under the system to begin this year, high-priority courses such as electrical engineering and children’s services will be free, whilst others will receive a subsidy of 90 per cent, 70 per cent, 50 per cent or 20 per cent, depending on their public value. Skills for All contributed to a 46 per cent increase in vocational education in South Australia from 2012-13. This was hailed as a good news story although questions were asked about the lack of targeted training and job vacancies. The public value framework looks at economic value, participation value, employment connections and youth transitions, yet there is no evidence that these bands will create public value. To rub salt in the wound, a source inside TAFE SA said the 2013 international student figures had continued to slide. In 2010, TAFE SA had 2309 international students, in 2011 it had 2104 students and in 2012, just 1785 students. TAFE SA’s 2013 annual report did not list its international student numbers. It was unknown whether the budget cuts would affect the staffing of the new $120 million Tonsley TAFE SA campus, due to open in January. Tonsley TAFE aims to train 6500 students a year across the building and construction trades. In early December, South Australian Minister for Higher Education Grace Portolesi said in The Advertiser that the changes would provide a better way for the government to lead students towards courses in areas where there were skills shortages. “It’s a much more predictable way of distributing the funds, which is good for government and good for industry,” Portolesi said. “It will certainly contribute [to budget savings] over time but it’s a policy shift more than a savings measure.” Why was the government funding courses for which there were no jobs? Whose responsibility was it to monitor enrolments so the figures didn’t blow out? This is a classic example of the state government failing to get its implementation policy right, and there are already examples of the potential consequences – in US cities such as Detroit, New Orleans, Buffalo and Flint, Michigan. Their populations have withered as manufacturing and industry have moved offshore or closed down. They have rising crime rates and ‘for lease’ signs litter their retail and business districts. They have become tumbleweed cities. In South Australia, the changes come at a time when Holden workers in Elizabeth and allied professions along the supply chain are hungry for retraining. The writing is on the wall. Penrice Soda Holdings recently closed its Adelaide soda ash plant. Within the state, Simpson Pope, Westinghouse, Chrysler Australia, Electrolux, Mitsubishi, the Port Stanvac oil refinery, Carl Zeiss Vision, ROH, New Castalloy, Sanitarium, Trident Tooling, Autodom, RPG Group, Bridgestone, Clyde-Apac, Priority Engineering Services, the Port Lincoln Tuna Cannery, Angas Park, Kitchen Connection, Clipsal at Strathalbyn and Darrell Lea have all had closures. Thousands of jobs have been lost in the manufacturing sector over the last four years and the private construction industry is moribund. South Australia’s economy is in dire trouble. The state needs new blood and brains to ensure the training and education sector is targeted and remains viable. Malcolm King is a freelance journalist. He worked in the DEEWR Labour Market Unit in Canberra.