TAFE NSW fails to meet $250m savings target

The NSW government’s radical overhaul of TAFE has failed to meet its savings target by more than $260m, an audit has found.

NSW Auditor-General Margaret Crawford. Picture: AAP

The NSW government’s radical overhaul of TAFE has failed to meet its savings target by more than $260m and has confused its commercial ambitions with its obligations to provide the public with technical and vocational education, a government audit has found.

The report, prepared by the NSW Auditor-General Margaret Crawford, concluded the business case for the TAFE NSW modernisation was severely flawed, with “relatively short time frames” announced even before planning was complete, and largely with no alternate ­reform proposals presented.

“There was no clear guidance on how to balance or prioritise these competing objectives,” Ms Crawford’s report reads.

“Without clarity as to the primary purpose of TAFE NSW, it is difficult to put in place the ­appropriate accountability and control arrangements.”

The modernisation program was launched under the Baird government and aimed to overhaul the entire public technical education system in an attempt to save $250m every year and create a more commercially oriented organisation.

TAFE NSW is the largest public system in the country, and has more than 430,000 students enrolled in 1200 courses across its 130 campuses, the most recent data shows.

Despite this, Ms Crawford found the program saved just $84m in its first year of full operation in 2018-19, and only $115m in the past financial year.

Responding to questions from The Australian, managing director Steffen Faurby said TAFE NSW was working to implement changes recommended in Ms Crawford’s report.

“TAFE NSW has accepted all the recommendations of the Audit Office and has already taken steps to implement them where they haven’t already been completed,” he said.

The report’s findings have ­arrived several months after NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian ruled out privatising TAFE NSW but said she was open to commercial interest.

“If the question is whether we are selling off TAFE, the answer is an absolute no. This is about increasing our opportunities,” she said in a statement.

“But if the question is whether we are open to industry making a contribution on top of that, the answer is yes.”

The NSW opposition spokesman on skills and tertiary education, Jihad Dib, described the findings of the report as sad and questioned the motives behind the NSW government’s six-year overhaul.

“The only way you’re going to meet that reduction is by reducing courses, reducing staff or selling off bits and pieces,” he said.

He said the plan was part of a government move towards ­making TAFE NSW a “market-based model”.