The NSW State Opposition has again warned that the ability of TAFE in the region to train our youth is under threat.
Ms Pru Car, NSW Shadow Minister for Skills, visited the Gosford Campus of the Hunter Institute of TAFE on Tuesday, February 28, with Labor Candidate for Gosford, Ms Liesl Tesch, to discuss the TAFE crisis on the Central Coast.
“The State Government has waged a war on TAFE across the State and its impact is plain to see, here on the Central Coast,” said Ms Car.
“One hundred and eighty five teachers have been sacked across the Hunter Institute in the life of this Government, and enrolments have tanked by more than 15,000,” she said.
State-wide, 5,200 teachers and support staff have been sacked, and enrolments have fallen by 126,000 in the TAFE system, the Shadow Minister said.
Ms Tesch said she was passionate about education.
As a high school teacher, she said she had experienced firsthand the importance TAFE has in the development of skills in young people on the Coast.
“My husband was a TAFE teacher as a ship wright and has just retrained as a high school teacher,” Ms Tesch said.
“Now there is talk of bringing in ship wrights from overseas as we don’t have the skilled people any longer, a direct result of the government’s war on TAFE,” she said.
Labor has committed to rebuilding the TAFE system, allocating 70 per cent of all NSW Vocational Education and Training (VET) funds to TAFE NSW.
The Central Coast has almost 15 per cent youth unemployment, triple the regular NSW unemployment rate.
Ms Tesch said: “We need to make it easier for our young people to get into training, not harder.”
Interviews,
Feb 28, 2017
Liesl Tesch, Labor Party Candidate for NSW Seat of Gosford
Pru Car, NSW Shadow Minister for Skills
Noel Fischer, Photo journalist