Fee-free TAFE courses will only fix part of skills shortage

In a few weeks, students will return to schools, universities and other education providers, with some heading off to TAFE without having to pay.

In the October 2022 budget, the Federal Government announced it would provide Australian states and territories with $1.1 billion to open up 180,000 fee-free positions across 110 TAFE courses nationwide in 2023.

States and territories moved quickly to implement their part, with South Australia announcing initiatives in mid-November and Western Australia following suit not long after.

Of the free TAFE positions, a minimum of 15,000 will be dedicated to courses in aged care to help relieve pressure in this sector.

This is part of a wider medium-term plan to provide 480,000 free-fee TAFE courses to help Australians have access to the skills they need for the jobs of the future.

The fee-free places are targeted at priority groups including First Nations people, young people, job seekers, unpaid carers, women in non-traditional fields of study and people with disability.

In WA, the agreement will expand the state government driven WA Skills Ready package initiated during the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw 15 fee-free short TAFE courses introduced and the reduction of fees for many other courses.

This was on top of the Lower fees, local skills initiative started before COVID-19 which reduced fees by up to 72 per cent in 39 high priority courses.

In WA, the new federal funding will support the Free in ’23 initiative that will see approximately 8500 fee-free TAFE places in the care sector, 2400 places in technology and digital, 1900 places in agriculture, 1500 places in construction, 1400 places in hospitality and tourism, 300 places in sovereign capability including manufacturing, and around 2800 in other sectors including foundational skills.

For example, a Certificate IV in Ageing Support, which is currently half-price, will be fee-free for 2023. This will help sectors facing ongoing skills shortages during and after the COVID-19 border closures as identified through the skills priority list.

However, it will take time for the benefits of the additional trainees to flow through to the employers, depending on the enrolment rates and duration of these courses.

For example, some courses which just require on-campus or online learning such as the Entry into Car Roles Skill Set, can be done quickly with students completing in seven weeks.

On the other hand, courses requiring on the job skills in the form of apprenticeships or traineeships can take up to two semesters or an entire year before students gain their qualifications.

This scheme will hopefully reverse the long-term decline in enrolments and government funding among TAFEs.

With a 4:1 ratio of Vocational Education and Training (VET) to Higher Education enrolments across the nation, this will also alleviate some of the rapidly rising cost-of-living pressures facing school leavers given Year 12 exams are now over and they may be thinking about their future options and making decisions for further or higher education in the next few weeks.

It will greatly expand the number of courses beyond the current Skill Sets to higher-level qualifications, like Certificate III and Certificate IV courses, in which they do not have to pay any fees.

However, despite most current VET students being enrolled in courses provided by private providers, the new free-fee offerings will mainly be restricted to offerings to TAFEs in the states and territories.

Moving forward, it needs to be noted the additional 2023 fee-free TAFE courses are only part of an interim agreement.

To make these initiatives part of a longer-term sustainable strategy, the federal government needs to urgently finalise the National Skills Agreement.

Meanwhile fee-free TAFE courses are set by state and territory governments, with a mind to which skills are needed locally, rather the bigger, national picture.

This is in keeping with the traditional Australian view that skills training and education is mainly to meet local needs.

Our research has shown there is an opportunity here for the Federal Government to address this at the national level through the new Jobs and Skills Australia.

This will see states and territories train more workers for each other – instead of just for themselves – as recommended by previous reviews into the VET sector such as the 2019 Expert Review of Australia’s VET System.

Beyond skills training, these should also be integrated with policies to help encourage labour mobility between states, which will reduce skill mismatches between employers and employees across the nation and boost productivity as underscored in the recently released interim report by the Productivity Commission as part of their 5-year Productivity Inquiry.

Professor Pi-Shen Seet

This article originally appeared in the West Australian.