Background
The Andrews Labor Government is scrambling to cover up its failed TAFE ‘rescue’, spending almost half a billion dollars to keep Victoria’s TAFEs afloat.
A Victorian Auditor-General’s annual Audit Snapshot, released today, shows Victoria’s training system is shrinking and becoming more reliant on State Government grants.
It found:
“The improvement in revenue in 2015 and 2016 has been driven by additional government grant funding, rather than growth in revenue. Student numbers continued to fall, and all other sources of revenue such as student fees and contestable funding declined in 2015 and 2016” (VAGO report, p17).
The report revealed Labor has handed out $490 million in grants to TAFEs in the past two years, but student numbers and training quality have worsened.
The Auditor-General flagged concerns that TAFEs had reduced “financial flexibility” with falling student numbers and income revenue.
The report also found the course funding provided by the Andrews Government was not sufficient to meet staff costs of most TAFEs.
Comments from Shadow Minister for Training, Skills and Apprenticeships Steph Ryan
Student numbers are plummeting, but Daniel Andrews and Gayle Tierney are still trying to tell Victorians their TAFE ‘rescue’ has been a success.
TAFE is weaker, not stronger, under Labor, to a point where they now rely more on State Government bailouts, than their own revenue, to stay afloat.
It’s clear Daniel Andrews’ TAFE ‘rescue’ has been a complete failure.