The Federal Government is set to introduce legislation to establish fee-free TAFE as an enduring feature of the national vocational education and training system.
The legislation would see 100,000 fee-free TAFE places funded each year from 2027.
The move builds on the government’s partnership with states and territories to deliver 180,000 fee-free TAFE places in 2023 and 300,000 places over three years from 2024, with agreements being finalised for a further 20,000 construction and housing fee-free places.
Fee-free TAFE started in January 2023, with more than 508,000 enrolments in courses in priority areas such as disability and aged care, digital and technology, construction and early childhood education and care.
Enrolments have included 170,000 young Australians, 124,000 job seekers and 30,000 First Nations Australians .
Of all places, six in 10 have been taken up by women, and one in three in regional and remote Australia.
Federal Member for Robertson Dr Gordon Reid said free TAFE was proving to be an incredibly successful policy.
“As a government we are committed to removing the barriers to education, particularly in critical areas of the economy experiencing skills shortages,” he said.
“We want to be training more construction workers, nurses, and educators.”
The policy or legislation of fee-free Tafe is so unfair to taxpayers. The government should leave more fundings to fix the roads and have more public hospitals than free educations which most Australians do not want to take!
Well at long last a policy made for Australian industry and Australians. Industries like construction, trades and health services are being held back because of a lack of trained staff. The Libs privatised experiment failed miserably, even they admit it and since then successive govts have just been importing 100s of thousands of people to fill the gaps, though we don’t have enough housing for Australians.
This single policy will boost our country’s skills and profits significantly. i don’t say that often these days as have lost a lot of faith in big parties.