Saturday, September 28, 2013

Vocational Education woes

A new public Vocational Education model seems to be emerging in Western Australia , that will see more of the wealthier and focused youth finding positions in courses  ie. pre-apprenticeships .The removal of fee caps has taken away a major advantage the public provider had over private providers, this in itself you would think means TAFE must become competitive and not necessarily a bad thing. But this means a rise in fee's that most young students would struggle to pay or a student loan that some may fail to justify resulting in a smaller student intake. Coupled this with a massive budget blowout due to the incompetence of the previous Managing Director , TAFE has had it budget all but frozen with future funding cut. Private providers that haven't been around as long have other advantages in regards to technologies , not being lumbered with antiquated equipment and out of date training facilities.With a lack of funds and students and no fee advantage over private providers the future of  public vocational training seems unsure. To starve a facility of funding until it no longer can function efficiently makes it an easy target for change, to suit whatever the Governments agenda is.

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