Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Workplace Relations

Inquiry into the Role of Institutes of TAFE
Submissions

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Submission 96

Submission of the Australian Education Union to the House of Representatives Committee on Employment, Education and Training and Youth Affairs Inquiry into the role of TAFE Institutes in Australia and the overlap with Universities

February 1998

Sharon Burrow
Federal President

Rex Hewett
Federal TAFE Secretary

Australian Education Union
Ground Floor 120 Clarendon Street Southbank 3006 9
PO Box 1158 South Melbourne 3205

Telephone: 61 3 9254 1800
Facsimile: 61 3 9254 1805

SUBMISSION TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES COMMITTEE ON

EMPLOYMENT EDUCATION TRAINING AND YOUTH AFFAIRS INQUIRY INTO

THE ROLE OF TAFE INSTITUTES IN AUSTRALIA AND THE OVERLAP WITH

UNIVERSITIES.

'we should be immensely proud of our TAFE system (as) it is the best, most flourishing TAFE system in the world'.

Learning For Life, 1997

1. Introduction

The Australian Education Union (AEU) represents teaching and education related staff employed in TAFE Institutes/Colleges in all States and Territories in Australia. The AEU also represents teachers and related staff in public schools participating in TAFE/VET programs in the senior years of secondary schooling. The AEU is Australias largest union exclusively organised in the public education and training sector and is concerned to ensure that its members are full participants in decisions about the future role and structure of the education industry.

This submission represents AEU views on broad public policy issues as well as matters that are the subject of particular relevance to union members in the TAFE sector. While the AEU does not claim to speak on behalf of TAFE students the key issues addressed in this submission are directly related to membership and union concerns for students interests.

It is a significant failure of governments that the voice of TAFE students to this inquiry is limited by the lack of government funding for the development of representative TAFE student organisations.

The major unions in the post compulsory education sector, including the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) are committed to the maintenance and strengthening of the public system of TAFE and to the retention by government of responsibility for planning, funding and accountability provisions for all TAFE institutions.

2. TAFE: A System of Institutes or an institution of Systems

Fundamental to the access of existing and future students to quality vocational education and training is the continued commitment of government to fund a consistent, flexible and diverse TAFE system which delivers portable national qualifications.

Historically TAFE Institutes (and their predecessor organisations) have been funded and regulated by State and Territory Governments with the Commonwealth Government a relative late comer to the funding of vocational education and training. After a landmark report (Kangan Report 1976) the Commonwealth provided significant capital grants to upgrade the TAFE system including expansion of the TAFE network of Colleges through almost $4,000 million in capital grants over the last 20 years. To a lesser extent the Commonwealth funded some targeted recurrent programs.

Up until the early 1990's there was almost no all government agreement to a nationally consistent system of qualifications and its constituent components. Nor was there a commitment to a nationally consistent training provider registration/recognition system.

The agreement to establish the Australian National Training Authority (ANTA) in 1992 was the first cooperative all government commitment to develop a national system of vocational education and training out of 8 separate State and Territory TAFE systems. It represented the first step in the development of a system of TAFE institutes/colleges that formed the major part of a national strategy for the VET system. A system of TAFE institutes rather than a institution of TAFE systems.

Under the ANTA agreement development of a National Strategy for Vocational Education and Training involved a commitment by all governments to the development of an integrated but flexible system of portable qualifications based on industry and occupational competency standards delivered by quality registered public training providers articulating with, but independent of, other post compulsory education institutions.

The AEU supports the development of a system of publicly funded but integrated TAFE Institutes capable of delivering quality VET programs to all its constituent groups taking account of differences including ethnicity, physical location, access requirements, mode of delivery, student demography and operational structures best suited to the particular environment of the sector.

Consistent with these developments the AEU supports nationally consistent arrangements for TAFE Institute staff and opposes downward benchmarking. In particular the AEU opposes the deliberate distortion in statistics used by ANTA when benchmarking other states against Victoria because Victorian TAFE staff have not received a salary increase for 7 years while their colleagues in other states now received up to 20% more for similar work.

3. TAFE Clients

The system of vocational education and training (VET) consists of private and public provision with TAFE delivering 92% of government funded vocational education programs.

The bulk of the 1.35 million students enrolling in VET programs each year in Australia are conducted by 84 TAFE Institutes but includes a growing number of private providers and Adult and Community Education colleges (see 1996 NCVER Vocational Education and Training Statistics).

TAFE Institutes provide programs to a diverse range of students from industry and the community, for disadvantaged groups and as part of a public service which benefits the unemployed, those in employment and those seeking to enhance their existing skills and qualifications through life.

By any social, economic, income, age, gender, ethnicity or geographic measure the TAFE student population more closely resembles a cross section of Australia's multicultural society than any other sector of education and provides access to training opportunities for all disadvantaged groups.

As an indication of the breadth of the TAFE students population they include the unemployed or those not in the labour force (22%), pensioners (5%), disabled people (3.1%), Aboriginals (2%), people born outside Australia (16%), foreign language speakers (10%), those undertaking courses in rural or remote areas and the 325,000 students undertaking basic employment skills courses (see 1996 NCVER Vocational Education and Training Statistics).

As clients of TAFE Institutes students seem to be generally satisfied with the education they receive from their local TAFE Institute. Evidence from surveys of client groups show strong support for the work of TAFE teachers and a high overall level of client satisfaction with TAFE provision. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) found that 80% of TAFE graduates achieved their main aim in undertaking their course and 78% indicated that the TAFE course was relevant to their job (ABS, 1995:2-1 0).

A National Employer Satisfaction Survey conducted in 1996 by AGB McNair found that 75% of employers thought that the skills acquired were relevant to the needs of their Organisation. Almost 73% said that the training was cost effective and two-thirds thought that training resulted in productivity gains for their Organisation (AGB McNair, 1996: 5-27).

4. Access and Equity

TAFE has provided access to further education for people who for a number of reasons have not had access to university or who have low skills as a result of interrupted or incomplete schooling.

For example, an increasing number of women returning to the workforce time away from it find completion of a TAFE course the initial step in gaining employment or in changing their employment status.

TAFE has been crucial to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) communities and individuals by providing access to further education and training. In 1996, Ms Linda Burney, former Chair of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples' Training Advisory Council stressed the importance of TAFE for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people:

"If there was ever an activity which illustrates the need to bring access and equity to indigenous people, then the present National Inquiry into the removal of Aboriginal Children (being held in Sydney) does this. Many of these children were forcibly removed or taken away on the pretext of training. In 1909 NSW used the term indentured labour and young girls were used as domestic servants and never saw any wages. Some training!

Indigenous people carry this legacy. I'm a very strong supporter of TAFE. It has provided real opportunities in NSW to gain training. Aboriginal people are well represented in TAFE across Australia.

I think there is a real danger in the current political climate that indigenous people will be left behind It is interesting to note that 50% of Aborigines are under the age of 20. They will need skills, training and access ".

People with disabilities, long term unemployed people, people in custody, retrenched workers undertaking retraining and people in remote and rural communities have also gained opportunities through undertaking education and training in TAFE .

Experience has shown us that access and equity into vocational education and training is best achieved through public provision. Expertise in delivery of vocational education and training to disadvantaged groups is a feature in TAFE Institutes. There is little evidence that private training providers have any expertise, any interest or feel any responsibility for disadvantaged groups seeking training.

Barnett and Wilson in 'Separate Responsibilities, A Comparative, Equity - Focused Study of Commercial and Community Providers' (1995) found:

'At present, access and equity programs are the responsibility of public sector agencies and agencies (such as community organisations) which are funded by them. The degree to which private sector training providers regard access and equity issues as central or peripheral to their operations, and the degree of accountability which they feel for the pursuit of access and equity issues, is not known.

Given the need to provide training on a for-profit basis, it is unlikely that commercial providers will actively pursue access and equity goals, especially when their pursuit constitutes a cost to their operation and their need to function in a competitive manner. "

Barnett and Wilson, in comparing equity-focused provisions made by commercial and community providers with TAFE providers, also found that:

"While there is a considerable variation from one TAFE system to another, and from one TAFE college to another in terms of provisions made for equity, the TAFE training sector and the private training sector are clearly distinguished by the level of responsibility assigned to each for access and equity issues. The TAFE sector is guided by a range of policies designed to address inequities".

Research which has been undertaken on the factors which affect peoples' participation in further education and training has shown that there are a number of "barriers" to participation including lack of employment status, location, lack of income support, lack of previous experience in education and training, and limited access to support such as child care facilities.

In "Some Can, Some Can't", Kate Barnett (I 994) found that the combined effect of these factors can be disastrous:

"Barriers to participation in TAFE can be singular in their impact on individual students, but the force of this is usually driven by their interaction with other inhibiting factors. People of non-English-speaking backgrounds will face a host of linguistic and cultural barriers to their participation in TAFE, but these factors are increasingly powerful if they interact with other barriers -for example, living in an isolated rural area. People with disabilities are likely to face a number of access difficulties in undertaking studies at TAFE and these are compounded by a lack of special support facilities or inflexible course structure. "

Their are more than 1,132 TAFE campuses around Australia creating the opportunity for access to training for remote and rural people on a scale not available elsewhere in the post compulsory education sector.

5. Industry and Workforce Training

A major focus of recent developments in the changing role of TAFE Institutes is the relationship to industry and workforce training. The move towards greater emphasis on workplace delivery rather than simulation has demanded a different relationship with industry. Industry representatives are determining the fundamental elements of the training system. However individual firms and businesses rely on the flexibility of TAFE Institutes to develop customised curriculum to suit their training needs consistent with national standards.

Some of these clients are able to pay for training and others not. Over the last 8 years the restructured national TAFE system has successfully adapted to commercialism and competitive practices, met the diverse training needs of industry and enterprises and participated successfully in delivering vocational education and training in international markets, particularly in the Asia Pacific region;

The costs of vocational education are a significant factor in its availability particularly when considering access issues. TAFE Institutes are well equipped because of their unique connections with industry to deal with these range of needs.

It is worth noting that recently released results of the national survey Employer training expenditure survey Australia shows a significant decline in structured training since 1993 (NCVER: 1997). This is the period during which the Training Levy legislation requirements were suspended.

Average expenditure per employee fell by 3% between 1993 and 1996. The average number of hours of structured training to each employee fell by some I 1%. The most disturbing feature of the figures is that fewer than 18% of all employers provided structured training to their employees in 1996, a fall of some 20% from 1993.

Industry relies on publicly funded TAFE Institutes to undertake a significant if not all of the training for small to medium firms. An adequately funded TAFE has the potential to 'skill the nation'.

This requires governments at all levels to developing a national plan for TAFE as part of post secondary public education provision, a plan that satisfies the needs of all TAFE clients while ensuring the continued development of TAFE Institutes vast human and physical resources.

6. A National Plan for TAFE

The network of 84 TAFE Institutes operate as a system of publicly owned enterprises whose responsibility is to deliver vocational education and training programs and services that satisfy industry and community client expectations and contribute to the social and economic development of Australia.

Governments have an obligation to fund infrastructure, equipment and staff for a system of public TAFE Institutes because:

• the opportunities to achieve economies of scale are not possible with smaller training providers and there are sometimes high capital costs associated with some courses;
• there is an ongoing need to provide and deliver training which is uneconomical to provide on a privately funded basis in order to contribute to the national skills pool;
• there is a need to ensure stability in the provision of training given the cyclical nature of industry commitment to training and the changing nature of the demand for skills and occupations in the labour market;
• assessment of workers skills is a core industrial relations issue and TAFE is seen as an independent/objective trainer and assessor;
• customers of the VET system need high quality system information about training
options;
• partnerships and TAFE/industry collaboration provide better vocational education outcomes for students than 'dead end' training options in a deregulated market;

The essential elements of a healthy national TAFE system are:

• an independent relationship from both schools and higher education institutions while maintaining close links through credit transfer and articulation arrangements
• a nationally coherent system of TAFE Institutes informed by all stakeholders including government, industry and community clients, teachers and general staff
• single source of government funding based on triennial grants
• quality student demand driven system
• a regulated qualifications system underpinned by national curriculum that meets the vocational education and training needs of governments, industry, individuals and the broader community in flexible and student centred ways.

In carrying out its role the government should ensure curriculum and career choices for post compulsory education students. These choices should be based on a commitment that academic and vocational education are integrated through coherent sequences of programs so that students achieve both academic and occupational competencies. Leaving curriculum decisions solely in the hands of industry may lead to vocational preparation for narrow, task specific skills with little in the way of broad based, general and specific skills for a life of career or occupational changes.

Institutional relationships providing these curriculum and educational choices vary between educational sectors, geographic regions and the nature of the industry or occupations these institutions seek to serve.

7. The Post Compulsory Education Sector

The post compulsory education sector is diverse and consists of Schools (mainly senior secondary schools), Technical and Further Education (TAFE), Higher Education, Adult Migrant Education Service (AMES), Adult and Community Education (ACE) and about 3,000 small private training providers. Many AMES programs are delivered through TAFE Institutes.

Over the last few years the intersectoral relationships have been enhanced because of the growth and diversity of occupational skill needs of an increasingly more mobile workforce both domestically and internationally.

At the sectoral interface factors such as the adoption of a national system of qualifications (AQF) with overlapping qualifications offered by schools, TAFE and universities and the tendering/contracting out of public funds in the VET sector have blurred previously clearly defined barriers.

Most TAFE and Higher Education institutions have articulated pathways and credit transfer arrangements although these are not nationally consistent (see ANTA response to Learning For Life, 1997).

Improvements in articulation of qualification between TAFE and universities and vice versa should not be mistaken for the significant differences in:

7.1 funding arrangements
7.2 student fees
7.3 demography and student access
7.4 employment outcomes of students
7.5 teaching and delivery methods
7.6 nature of the relationship to industry and community

The following comments reflect some differences identified by the AEU between the TAFE and Higher Education systems.

7.1 Funding

The primary public funding for TAFE comes from the states although in recent years the Commonwealth has increased its commitment to 30 % of total public funding of TAFE while the Commonwealth provides all public funding for the universities. The table below shows total income to both sectors.

308,210 880,403

Source	Higher Ed.	%	VET	%
Government Contribution	4,411,780	58.5	2,777,736	81.6
Fee for Service			9.1
Student Fees and Charges	11.8	145,587	4.2
HECS	902,046	12.0
Ancillary Trading and
other Donations and Bequests	85,304	1.1	172,657	5.1
Investment Income	305,042	4.0
Other Income	951,146	12.6
Total	7,535,721	100.0	3,404,190	100.0

Source: DEETYA, Selected Higher Education Financial Statistics 1995; ACVETS, Collection of National Financial Data on Vocational Education and Training.

 

The TAFE/VET sector depends more on public funding than universities as the table for expenditure in 1995 indicates. This is mainly due to the effect of HECS and other student fees and charges (24%) and 'other' income consisting mainly of fee for service and consultancy work in universities.

If the external source of funding is deducted from the total cost in each sector a TAFE place cost would be roughly equivalent or in some cases more than a university place. As the West Review comments public funding 'per full-time equivalent student for TAFE is, on average, greater in absolute terms than that provided for higher education'.

However this simplistic comparison does not take into consideration the differences in the capacity of TAFE students to pay fees, the relatively high cost of equipment and associated costs of a widespread system of TAFE Institutes, the types of programs and nature of delivery of these programs and the capacity to raise external funds.

These differences between TAFE and universities in levels of non public external funding should not diminish the commitment of government to the TAFE system and highlights the need for adequate public funding levels for TAFE Institutes.

However policy makers in Victoria are pursuing a radical restructuring of the post compulsory sector despite community opposition to the restructuring. A 'seamless' system of post compulsory education can be achieved without resort to the wholesale structural changes such as occurred when Colleges of Advanced Education (CAE) and universities amalgamated.

The higher level of public funding per student place for TAFE compared with universities may be behind the actions of the Victorian Government in forcing certain TAFE Institute/University amalgamations. The relative higher public TAFE funds could be used to fund higher education courses at the expense of entry level vocational courses or courses at sub degree level.

Forced structural reforms whose main objective is economic efficiency as is being proposed in Victoria will fail. There must be genuine agreement of all parties involved including the staff and users of the system for successful reform.

Overseas experience seems to suggest that amalgamations of this type eventually result in loss of lower level course offering and an increase in higher level offerings to the detrement of people seeking entry level vocational skills.

7.2 Student Fees

Because of the lower socioeconomic background and level of qualifications of TAFE students their capacity to pay fees is limited. The AEU is opposed to fees of any type however the suggestion in 1997 by the then Minister for Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs, Senator Amanda Vanstone, that a HECS type fee would be better for TAFE students than the current level of up front charges is now condemned by course of events.

The HECS fee was introduced as a loans/deferred payments scheme yet recent changes have distorted the original principle of HECS so as to force many students in financial hoc for years longer than they expected and require them to pay back fees at a lower income level than originally specified.

While the average TAFE fee constitutes about 10% of the course cost, in universities HECS is around 40% of the cost of a course but can be up to 80% of the cost depending on the type of course. The HECS is likely to reduce access if introduced in TAFE and would be a barrier to a seamless post-compulsory education sector.

7.3 Demography of Students

As has previously been stated the TAFE student population is a diverse by background and location (I 996 NCVER TAFE Student Statistic). Significantly many regional and remote campuses within TAFE Institutes are the only form of post compulsory education facility accessible to local communities.

They represent an educational first point of call for young people and a second chance education opportunity for adults displaced in the workforce. Compared to the higher education sector the incomes of these people are relatively lower and they are more likely to be subject to precarious patterns of employment.

But accessibility is only one measure of the TAFE student group. Nearly equal percentages of university and TAFE students are in full time employment however a larger number of TAFE students are in casual or part time employment than university students. These students require longer periods of access to TAFE teaching and learning facilities.

The ANTA Board submission to the West Review Discussion Paper outlines the differences in

TAFE and university student characteristics including:

• 70%of university students are admitted on the basis of year 12 results whereas 50% of TAFE students had not completed year 12
• 59%of university students are enrolled in full-time studies whereas only 10% of TAFE students attend full-time
• More than 80% of university graduates are employed in professional or para-professional occupations while 70% of TAFE graduates are employed in operative or trade occupations.

Clearly the nature of the TAFE student population require a different approach to meeting their needs.

7.4 Employment Outcomes

Because there is a more direct link between industry, the workplace and the learning institution TAFE has achieved high levels of employment outcomes for first time entrants to the workforce but it has also provided employment outcomes for people displaced or skills mismatched through industry restructuring or adjustment.

Almost 75% of TAFE graduates are employed in the private sector while in the university sector there is almost a 50/50 split of private and public employment.

In summary TAFE employment outcomes for TAFE graduates are in the private sector employed as tradespersons, in clerical, sales and personal and community worker occupations. The two sectors meet the needs of a differing student population.

If there is to be a commitment by governments to an entitlement to post compulsory education then there also has to be guarantee of access to a place in TAFE or a University.

AEU policy seeks a commitment from government that all school leavers unable to gain entry to a job or a university place be guaranteed a one year full-time TAFE place.

7.5 Teaching and Delivery

The essential differences between university and TAFE teaching is the more hands on approach of TAFE programs. University teachers usually use a lecture theatre technique and tutorials with limited hands on interaction. Both techniques have a role in educating the workforce and the community.

Recent developments in relation to competency based training and the delivery of training in workplace settings based on industry and occupational standards requires a different approach.

The introduction of greater choice of training provider by users and the increased competition for training funds has put new demands on TAFE teachers and related staff. They now have to deliver what the training consumer want at a time and in the way customised to met that firm or persons needs in the most flexible way possible. Workplace and flexible modes of delivery require a fundamentally different approach and relationship to classroom teaching.

There is now a clear delineation in the respective roles and responsibility of TAFE teachers and university teachers.

Universities engage in teaching and research while TAFE Institutes have been almost exclusively involved in teaching. Teaching and research are to a large extent interdependent in universities whereas in TAFE research may be a byproduct and is usually related to a curriculum need or an industry or workplace specific demand.

Fundamental research has never been a requirement (nor have funds been specifically allocated) in TAFE. Funds have been mainly focussed on maintaining current teaching competence.

Staff promotion in TAFE is not reliant on research whereas teaching qualifications are critical to quality continuous teaching performance and for career advancement. Ironically universities do not require a teaching qualification but should have undertaken research and published to gain promotion.

7.6 The Relationship to Industry

One of the major distinguishing features of the TAFE system has been its strong partnership with industry and professional associations in the development of vocational education and training. The adoption of training reforms that centre on a competency based training approach has been underpinned by the close involvement of industry in setting standards for competent performance in the workplace. At the macro level the development of industry policy and consequent labour market reforms are a central consideration for TAFE Institutes in their relationship with industry.

While national standards have underpinned the CBT system, curriculum customisation to suit individual needs of firms requires even closer liaison with industry. This is in continuous development and means that TAFE has to deal with a different set of industry relationships to those of most universities.

8. TAFE and the Future of Post-Compulsory Education

In terms of student numbers, the TAFE/VET sector was twice the size of the higher education sector in 1995, ie 1.35 million students in TAFE/VET and 604,177 in Universities. The bulk of TAFE/VET students are enrolled in shorter courses and attend on a part-time basis.

The equivalent full-time students (EFTS) in VET in 1995 was 485,922 and in higher education was 467,748. Much lower costs per students in VET mean that the VET sector is roughly half the size of the higher education sector in terms of gross expenditure. The average cost for a full-time student in higher education was $13,800 and in VET $7,500.

The movement of TAFE students to higher education has increased substantially in recent years, as has the proportion of TAFE graduates receiving credit for higher education entry. For example, 8,386 TAFE Diploma graduates entered universities in 1995 (whereas 3,153 entered in 1990) and 8.2 per cent of higher education students had a TAFE award as their highest prior qualification in 1996 compared to 1.6 per cent in 1992.

A seamless qualifications articulation system seems to be evolving within a limited structural change environment but because of the multiple sources of involvement in terms of policy and operational control over the TAFE/VET sector, confusion over respective roles of government and post compulsory education institutions permeates the sector.

Reflecting a lack of clear focus for TAFE the states of NSW and SA recently restructured their TAFE systems to combine with school education under one Department of Education. This is in stark contrast to the Victorian Government decision to amalgamate some TAFE Institutes with universities and all other states where TAFE is operates as a discreet part of the VET sector.

However the most fundamental changes for future relations within the post compulsory education sector will be the extent to which governments commit to deregulatory and competitive market policies.

For example the restrictions imposed on TAFE provision by the diversion in 1998 of up to $500 million of public funds to private providers through so-called 'user choice' mechanism could severely hamper the capacity of TAFE Institutes to find supplementary funds for community service obligations provision and could lead to unnecessary duplication of training facilities if public TAFE Institutes remain idle while private training facilities are being built or rented.

Competitive practices in TAFE have resulted in a gross distortion in staffing arrangements so that now almost 50% of student contact hours are delivered by short term contract or hourly paid teachers.

All TAFE Institutes are now subject to competition from within the private VET sector as well as from universities.

While universities remain self accrediting bodies they maintain a distinct advantage over other similar educational institutions. The Australian Qualification Framework (AQF) provides the basis for sectoral integrity but with unequal accreditation powers between the two sectors.

The recent debate over including Associate Degrees in the Framework highlighted this anomalous situation.

The AEU believes that developments in the post compulsory education sector should be planned and not left up to market forces. All stakeholders should be consulted and the Commonwealth Government, as the major funding source for the post compulsory education sector, is well placed to initiate the development of an overall plan. -

The planning process should ensure that government resources are not duplication and that the discrete roles of the two sectors are maintained and enhanced.

The maintenance of a strong TAFE sector is critical to the needs of the VET sector because TAFE provides over 90% of vocational education program delivery and will continue to be a valuable public resource as the ANTA response to the West Review indicated:

• of all clients of VET, 70 per cent are enrolled in TAFE Institutes;
• of all module enrolments in vocational programs, 95 per cent are in TAFE;
• eighty four TAFE institutes operate in 1,132 locations nationally;
• the replacement value of TAFE capital assets is estimated at over $6 billion;
• in 1995, there were 26,200 (full-time equivalent) teaching staff and 18,600 non-teaching staff across TAFE; and
• over 90 per cent of TAFE graduates did not have to move to attend their course even though 39 per cent of graduates were located outside a capital city.

Furthermore, the recent reforms to vocational education and training would not have been possible without TAFE's ability to respond to new policy influences.

TAFE institutes are not only central to the operation of VET, they represent a substantial, geographically spread, national asset. Its strengths include:

• a well recognised brand name;
• qualified teachers with experience in industry;
• establish capital stock; and
• the capacity to ensure stability in the provision of vocational education and training against shifts in private purchase of training.

It is essential that this network of TAFE providers be maintained and supported in a seamless system and that it continues to provide a diverse range of VET products'.

9. AEU Policy Issues

The AEU believes in a diverse post compulsory education system as currently structured. There is room for structural changes to accommodate changing student, industry and community demands. Such changes should be within an overall plan for the sector including a government guarantees to ensure the survival and growth of healthy and effective discrete TAFE and Higher Education systems.

This should include development of-

• a national system of funding for TAFE Institutes with guarantees for core and
• growth funding on a triennial basis;
• a national plan for TAFE and Higher Education; national professional standards for all TAFE staff, exemption from National Competition Policy;
• a guarantee that all school leavers unable to obtain a job on a university place be entitled to one year full time place in TAFE;

The AEU would be willing to address this submission in Committee hearings and has

encouraged its Branches to make verbal submissions, in their own right.

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