TAFE Teaches Association says Blacktown TAFE will be redeveloped “eventually”

THE  northern side of the Blacktown TAFE will shut and eventually be redeveloped into a modern TAFE, the NSW Teachers’ TAFE Association says.

TAFE Teachers Association organisers Terry Keeley and Phill Chadwick hope Blacktown TAFE will be kept as a public education institution.

THE  northern side of the Blacktown TAFE will shut and eventually be redeveloped into a modern TAFE, the NSW Teachers’ TAFE Association says.

The association’s western Sydney organiser Phill Chadwick said the organisation had a leaked copy of a state Cabinet document that lists 27 TAFE sites to be partially or fully sold to raise $63 million to fund a shortfall in the IT budget.

Blacktown and Quakers Hill campuses were not on the chopping block but Blacktown TAFE would be greatly reduced, at least in the short term.

Mr Chadwick said the association had been told the northern side of the Blacktown campus, opposite Blacktown Hospital, would be closed and eventually redeveloped into a modern TAFE.

Most classes have already relocated to the southern campus, with the last remaining course, the automotive classes, to move to Mt Druitt by the end of the year.

“Once that closes they will mothball the site in the short term and in the long term redevelop it as a purpose-built TAFE,” Mr Chadwick said.

“At the moment there’s no plan to sell off either side of Blacktown TAFE and the NSW TAFE Teachers’ Association will hold the government to that.”

Mr Chadwick said the association was hopeful the government would keep western Sydney TAFE campuses as public education institutions but the fact the information was gleaned from a leaked Cabinet document and not revealed publicly did not engender confidence.

The government’s recent record of cutting funding and jobs from TAFEs across the state also made him distrust the government, he said.

Mr Chadwick said about 120 jobs had been cut from the TAFE Western Sydney Institute, with another nine jobs expected to go in the languages, literacy and numeracy department at Blacktown TAFE.

Three jobs had already been lost from the businesses and financial services ­department.

Federal Labor MP for Greenway Michelle Rowland said job losses in the literacy department at Blacktown TAFE showed the government’s lack of understanding about the importance of learning English for the area’s many migrants.

“We have a really multicultural area and learning English is integral to getting a job,” she said. “We’ve got 14 per cent youth unemployment and it’s vitally important we skill our young people. You can’t do that by cutting TAFE.”

Blacktown state Labor MP John Robertson said: “If we know one thing about this government, it’s that they are addicted to selling off public assets. Abolishing institutes and recycling assets are code for privatisation and with TAFE enrolments at record lows this will only make things worse.”

A TAFE NSW spokesman said there were no plans to close Blacktown TAFE.

“TAFE Western Sydney will continue to deliver in Blacktown, supporting the needs of the growing region,” he said.