How to score a free degree: Women flock to TAFE as childcare chain offers free degrees

Worried that university study will lump you with a HECS debt? The government has a ‘once in a generation’ offer.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the Occasional Child Care Centre in Diamond Creek in Melbourne. Picture NCA NewsWire / Aaron Francis

Older women are flocking to sign up for free TAFE training, making up 60 per cent of 150,000 enrolments so far this year.

Aged care, cyber security, the construction sector and childcare have been the most popular training courses amid “once in a generation’’ reforms to plug post-pandemic skills shortages.

New data shows nearly 150,000 Australians have enrolled in free TAFE (Technical and Further Education) courses this year after federal, state and territory governments agreed to waive the usual fees for certificates and diplomas.

They include 35,000 jobseekers, 12,000 people with a disability, 26,000 students older than 45, and 25,000 migrants.

The most popular courses are in aged and disability care, with 42,565 enrolments, and IT (Information Technology) with 14,737 enrolments, focusing on cyber ­security.

Nearly 11,000 students have signed up for training courses in the construction sector, and 8572 in childcare.

With one in three enrolments in the female-dominated aged, disability and child care sectors, women have taken 60 per cent of the free places.

Federal Skills Minister Brendan O’Connor said fee-free TAFE was a key to “once in a generation reforms’’ to build a skilled economy.

“It is opening doors for Australians who might otherwise be unable to afford training,’’ he said.

As daycare centres cry out for qualified staff, one childcare company has resorted to offering free university degrees for staff.

Affinity Education grants scholarships to diploma-qualified educators and managers to upgrade to a university degree, without the worry of paying back student loans. The company invested $19m in its own learning academy last year, to upskill staff for its 225 daycare centres.

Linda Carroll, Affinity’s chief people officer, said tertiary scholarships had encouraged 110 educators to complete a bachelor of early childhood education degree.

“It’s a minimum of a $20,000 investment,’’ she said.

“They don’t come out of university with a HECS (higher education contribution scheme) debt.

“We also pay them during their practical placements, so that’s worth another $10,000 to $15,000 in salary costs.’’

Staff who take up the scholarship are required to work for Affinity for two years after graduating.

Brisbane teacher Naomi Bowditch, 29, who worked in childcare for nine years after dropping out of high school, attained certificates in childcare before upgrading to a diploma, which she used as study credit to cut a year from her four-year early childhood education degree through Swinburne Online.

“I didn’t finish high school so I didn’t think university was a pathway for me until I saw other people get in on a diploma,’’ she said.

“Affinity paid my HECS (debt), my student fees and gave me ­additional paid leave for my (work experience) placement so I still had income coming through.

“The degree’s given me a lot of confidence in understanding children’s development – I really like young kids and their development in the younger years is my niche.’’