TAFE SA revolution to plug skills shortage as review finds embattled system failed public and Minister admits Labor got vocation training profit goal wrong

Tens of thousands of TAFE SA students would have greater course choice and study at potential new campuses under a planned vocational training revolution.

TAFE students Jess Bradshaw and Jayden Turner at the Tonsley Campus. Picture: Brett Hartwig

Tens of thousands of TAFE SA students would have greater course choice and study at potential new campuses as part of a new regional push to revolutionise vocation training and help solve the skills crisis.

In a rare public admission of Labor failures, Training and Skills Minister Blair Boyer will on Monday admit the state government wrongly “corporatised” the embattled agency in 2012 to chase profits.

In one of the biggest overhauls in a decade, Mr Boyer will publish a new TAFE SA blueprint and new laws, after an independent review found the troubled system failed the public.

The taxpayer-funded training provider has a chequered history, with multiple crisis including a 2017 accreditation scandal, campus closures, course chaos, staff cuts and board turmoil.

Senior government sources concede TAFE is an “easy target for cuts”, especially in rural areas, which has been “highly damaging to TAFE SA’s reputation” and community training.

Jess Bradshaw and Jayden Turner have loved their courses. Picture: Brett Hartwig

The $170,000 review, which a former senior trade unionist compiled, makes 96 recommendations in six key areas to overhaul student targets, spending, funding, Indigenous programs, reconciliation, diversity, research and industry relationships.

Jobs centres for career support should also be created and campuses shared with communities.

The 10-year “road map” will lay groundwork for course expansion in defence to feed the new AUKUS nuclear submarine plans, hydrogen, early childhood and care, information technology, electrics as well as concreting.

Amid a 20 per cent surge in enrolments this year – the first rise since 2012 – officials say “nothing’s off the table”, including reopening or launching new campuses, but student fees will not increase to fund reforms.

Mr Boyer, also Education Minister, will unveil plans to change TAFE’s charter from a government “corporation” – which chases “large profits” – to an authority with a “stronger focus” on education results.

Minister for Education, Training and Skills, Blair Boyer and Deputy Premier Susan Close, who oversaw TAFE between 2016 and 2018 during an accreditation crisis. NCA NewsWire / David Mariuz

Proposed laws will end restrictions on a Skills Minister directing changes or policy, in which education public interest trumps commercial decisions.

TAFE’s board won’t be scrapped but it will become more “representative”.

“The decision in 2012 to corporatise TAFE is when the focus of our public training provider became less about the courses that the … economy needs and more about the courses that were profitable,” Mr Boyer said.

“This has had long-term impacts on TAFE.”

Officials say proposed new laws will “better balance” interests but give “clear requirements” on services to the disadvantaged and regions.

The government will consult on a new TAFE Act – to replace the contentious laws brought in by the former Weatherill Labor government – before a parliamentary vote next year.

How reforms will be funded is unclear but the government said TAFE had $39m extra funding.

A new joint Commonwealth skills agreement is also being negotiated.

Official figures show TAFE enrolments more than halved from 80,000 in 2011 to almost 34,000 last year. It now has almost 42,000 students.

The most popular courses are electrical and plumbing qualifications while students are also flocking to childhood education and care, cyber security, IT and project management.

Review author Jeannie Rea, a tertiary education veteran of more than 40 years, said her 96-page report included “quick” fixes and long-term goals until 2033.

Associate Professor Rea, a former National Tertiary Education Union president, said TAFE had suffered years of “contractions” but had to address funding and rebuilding its reputation.

“What we want from TAFE is not currently being achieved,” said the Victoria University academic.

Jeannie Rea said TAFE had suffered years of “contractions” but had to address funding and rebuilding its reputation. Picture: James Croucher

Questioning the review’s “symbolism and motherhood” statements, Opposition spokesman John Gardner, a former education minister with TAFE responsibility, said the Liberals would consider the “relatively modest” reforms with “an open mind”.

Agreeing Labor “botched” TAFE laws, he said: “One key thing missing … is any sense of the important role non-government training providers play.”

Newly appointed Principal of Morialta Senior College Roley Coulter,(C) with Education Minister Blair Boyer (L), and former Education Minister in the Liberal government, John Gardner, in February. Picture Dean Martin

Mr Boyer criticised the Opposition’s repeated TAFE attacks.

Final year electro technology students Jess Bradshaw, 32, of Nairne, and Jayden Turner, 23, of Seaford Meadows, said their Tonsley courses helped their apprenticeships.

“It has been really helpful,” said Miss Bradshaw.