TAFEs losing students despite Victorian Government free courses
One TAFE institution lost one-third of its students in a single year, with enrolments falling across the state last year. Despite a massive budget boost and free courses on offer, student numbers continue to plummet.
Education
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TAFE enrolments have fallen across Victoria while one institution lost a third of its students in a single year, annual reports reveal.
Higher education documents were among more than 25 annual reports dumped on Wednesday.
They showed enrolments at GOTAFE dropped 33 per cent in a year, from 14,181 students to 9533 in 2018.
FREE TAFE IN BUDGET CASH SPLASH
In four years, the TAFE with campuses in Shepparton, Benalla, Wangaratta, Seymour and Werribee saw its enrolments halved.
Enrolments at William Angliss and Federation Training also fell about 12 per cent in a year.
Overall, contestable funding — which is linked to enrolment numbers — was down 5 per cent.
The figures come after a $172 million investment by the Victorian Government in last year’s budget to offer almost 50 TAFE and pre-apprenticeship courses for free to fill the state’s skills shortage.
The annual reports reflect enrolment numbers before the free TAFE courses were announced, but reveal context for what may have led to the budget splurge.
Minister for Training and Skills Gayle Tierney said since free TAFE was introduced this year “we have seen a doubling of enrolments compared to the same TAFE courses at the same time last year”.
Shadow minister for training and skills Mary Wooldridge said nine out of 12 TAFEs had a drop in contestable training funding and “it’s not clear free TAFE is going to fix this”.
“Even the free TAFE enrolments aren’t going to make up for the drastic declines just in the past year,” she said.
Victoria’s university enrolments continued to climb.
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