How would the end of free TAFE impact skill shortages in Southwest Victoria?

In a recent speech, Coalition education spokesperson Sarah Henderson told a room of voters the Labor government’s free TAFE policy “isn’t working”.

“The free TAFE policy isn’t working. I'm sorry, I'm trying to be polite,” she said.

The Labor government introduced a free TAFE program in 2023 to address skills shortages across a range of industries.

The tuition-free training is available in high-demand areas including aged and disability care, early childhood and support work, and construction.

The Coalition has long opposed Labor’s free TAFE program, saying it doesn’t target skills shortages and costs too much. Peter Dutton voted against free TAFE in February.

Does free TAFE help?

Free TAFE has been available for certain high-demand jobs in Victoria since 2019. Since then there has been a four-year completion rate of more than half (53.7 percent). That’s higher than the national four-year university completion rate (around 40 percent), according to the Victorian Government.

The Coalition has attacked the program by claiming some courses' completion rates are as low as one percent. According to data obtained by the Victorian opposition, only 18 of 1,514 people (1.2 percent) who enrolled in Certificate IV in Plumbing and Services completed the course.

In a media appearance last year Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan said the low completion rate was due to plumbers finding jobs, saying, "they may not have completed their free TAFE course, but they've gone and got a job and they're on their pathway towards a career in a really important industry".

Hundreds of carers required 

From 2024-27 the Victorian Skills Authority says the Central Highlands and the Great South Coast will need more than 14,000 new workers, many of whom will either need, or benefit from, TAFE training and certificates. 

The new workers needed include 823 aged and disabled carers, 653 livestock farmers, 350 construction managers, 252 carpenters and joiners and 162 child carers, and over 1,000 more across several other sectors.

Each of those sectors is covered by free TAFE courses, such as Certificate III in Individual Support, a Diploma of Building and Construction, Certificate III in Early Childhood Education and Care, or Certificate III in Carpentry. Most people study part-time.

What it means for students

Grace Warmuth, a 32-year-old Port Fairy local, is completing a Certificate III in School Based Education Support, a free course, in the hopes of becoming a teacher’s aid.

“Before COVID I was a zookeeper, I did a Certificate III in Captive Animals with New South Wales TAFE,” she said. 

Grace told the Brolga she chose to enrol at Warrnambool’s South West TAFE because the campus was close to home and the course was free.  

“I really think kids are amazing and it starts off with needing more people out there to help get kids where they need to be,” she said. “I’m also later in life ADHD and slightly autistic, so having someone like me being able to help someone like me when I was a kid would have been brilliant.”

Grace is in her second term of study, but is set to begin her placement at the end of May, hopefully at a local primary school.

Asked if she would have been able to enrol if the course had fees, Grace said “probably not”.

“I couldn’t afford it at the moment, so if it wasn’t free, I wouldn’t be able to do it,” she said.

“Regardless of what you want to study, I think it's everyone's human right to be able to do that, and if that means that they get to study a free course, I think that's brilliant. I can’t wrap my head around the fact that they’re wanting to get rid of that.”

A warning from the Education Union

Justin Mullaly, Victorian President of the Australian Education Union, described the Coalition’s plan as “irresponsible” and said it showed how little it understood regional needs.

Free TAFE has “bolstered the strength of our regions and provided significant opportunities for Victorians to contribute to the economy and address our ongoing skill shortages”, he said.

He accused previous state Liberal governments in Victoria of cutting $1.2 billion from TAFE funding, resulting in “campus and course closures, TAFE teachers being sacked, and mass student debt”.

What do the candidates think?

Independent candidate Alex Dyson said cuts to free TAFE courses would have a negative impact on everyone in Wannon.

“These proposed cuts are the last thing that young people need in Wannon, who are already facing an uphill battle in the cost-of-living crisis,” Dyson said.

“Cutting fee-free TAFE courses would also magnify every problem our region is already facing. With fewer people able to access training, there will be less local workers to fix roads, build houses, and provide health care, child care, and aged care.”

The Brolga has sought comment from Wannon MP Dan Tehan.

In February 2024 Tehan said “Labor's much vaunted Fee-Free TAFE skills policy has comprehensively failed to maintain the number of apprentices and trainees taking up training with numbers collapsing across Wannon”.