TAFE students may be forced to pay up for ‘free’ courses after surge in enrolments
Despite a much-publicised election pledge promising free TAFE courses, students may now have to foot their own bill. This is the reason why.
VIC News
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Students may be forced to pay for the state government’s much-vaunted “free” TAFE courses under changes which have come into effect this year.
Enrolment limits in some free “priority” courses – including popular youth, community work and bookkeeping certificates and diplomas – were announced by the State Government in a shock move late last year.
It last week said students who missed out on places in newly-capped courses could choose to enrol in a different course, go to a different TAFE or could be “offered a place at the TAFE of their choice but they would have to pay fees”.
The $172 million free TAFE course package was a key plank of the State Government’s $644 million budget skills and training promise, aimed at strengthening TAFE and apprenticeships and creating jobs.
Announcing the free courses at the time, Premier Daniel Andrews said the Government was “not only investing in the projects our state needs – we’re investing in the people we need to build them”.
At Chisholm Institute, first semester places in two recently-capped free courses have already been filled.
“The Diploma of Community Services and Certificate IV in Youth Work have reached capacity and closed for the Semester 1 intake,” a spokeswoman told the Sunday Herald Sun.
Students who missed out are expected be given the option of starting study later in the year or being referred to another course or TAFE.
A number of free courses, including the capped Certificate IV in Accounting and Bookkeeping, have also reached capacity at Geelong’s Gordon TAFE.
And Swinburne said it was carefully managing entry to its free courses in an effort to avoid over-enrolment but if and when course caps were reached, would “work with students to find alternate study options, campuses or intake dates”.
A State Government spokeswoman also said two new early childhood education courses had been added to the free TAFE course list this year, “ensuring we have a pipeline of teachers as three-year-old kinder is rolled out statewide”.
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“From the very beginning, free TAFE has been about filling skills gaps and getting more Victorians into work. As those needs shift – and as the industries in demand change – it’s only appropriate our focus does too,” she said.
The capped TAFE courses are the Certificate IV in Accounting and Bookkeeping, Certificate III and IV in Education Support, Diploma of Community Services, Diploma of Justice and Certificate IV in Youth Work.
Victorian TAFE Association acting chief Nita Schultz said it would be wise for people interested in enrolling in one of the capped courses “to apply sooner rather than later”.
More than 36,000 students enrolled in free TAFE courses last year.