Courses face axe

By Nicole Williams
FUNDING cuts to the Victorian TAFE system could see Dandenong students lose access to courses.
Chisholm TAFE CEO Maria Peters has spoken out about the funding cuts, which could result in TAFE losing $25.5 million in State Government funding.
Ms Peters said modelling of the impact of the cuts revealed one third of all funding would be lost in 2013, across the Chisholm institution and including its Dandenong campus.
“There is no doubt that at Chisholm we will work and fight as hard as we can to find solutions and move this great institute forward with confidence to a positive and successful future,” she said.
“However, given the magnitude of the cuts, it is more than possible that there will be job losses and the likelihood that some of our current courses will not run.”
Chisholm has lost more than $16 million of annual government funding which supports community services and wage requirements and the TAFE also expects to lose $8.5 million as a result of changes to the funding of courses.
Ms Peters said Chisholm had performed well during 2011 in the VET sector however the level of the funding cuts put at risk its capacity to continue operating at that level.
Higher Education and Skills Minister spokesman, James Martin said government was redistributing subsidies according to course demand and areas of skills shortages.
“The government is increasing subsidies in these important areas (higher level training such as apprenticeships and areas of skills shortages), in which TAFEs traditionally have a very strong market share, while reducing subsidies in areas of over supply or that don’t necessarily lead to positive employment outcomes,” he said.
“Minister (Peter) Hall has already met with eight TAFEs and will be meeting with the remaining TAFEs over the coming weeks to discuss how they are planning to refocus their training provision to ensure the best possible outcomes for training and for taxpayers’ money.”