Ailish Dwyer
19 February 2025, 1:40 AM
More regional Australians are getting education or training with fee-free TAFE according to the latest data, with one out of three places filled by people from remote or regional Australia.
From January 2023 to June 2024 there was a total of 180,000 fee-free TAFE places, including 35,500 in early childhood education and care, 35,000 in construction, and 131,000 in care and support roles.
Federal Minister for Parkes, Mark Coulton, was happy with the amount of people from regional and remote areas attending TAFE as part of the fee-fee initiative.
"I have always been a firm believer in the power of education.
"If this statistic is true, I certainly welcome it; there is no doubt that the regions will benefit.
"Indeed, I did a TAFE course in welding after I left secondary school and the skills I took away from that course set me up for life."
The Albanese government wants to legislate the fee-free initiative into national education policy, however some industries are critical of the proposal.
Master Builders Australia entered a submission to the government's Free TAFE Bill 2024, advocating for the inclusion of not-for-profit, private registered training organisations (RTOs) in the final bill.
“Free TAFE initiatives unfairly distort the market towards TAFE-delivered courses over industry-led providers," said Master Builders Australia CEO Denita Wawn.
“We have not seen the free TAFE policy bring more people into building and construction apprenticeships; rather, it has simply reshuffled the deck.
“The proposed Bill is anti-competitive and creates a market distortion and should not be committed to legislation.
“If the Government does seek to pass the Bill, it must be amended to include not-for-profit industry-run RTOs."
Other industries so far seem supportive of the idea.
Although not all the aged care and child care facilities in the Western Plains contacted for this story were aware that there were currently fee-free courses available, Acting CEO of Koonambil Aged Care Paul Rosenquist said the changes could be a positive for attracting more workers into the aged care and disability care sector.
"It's a positive if we get more people in. We're still struggling for staff at the moment. We need to attract more people to the aged care industry.
"We're using agency workers, but it is costly, and it's something that affects our bottom line as a business."
In early childhood education, there has been an uplift in enrolments and commencements since the introduction of fee-free TAFE. In 2022, there were 10,472 enrolled in Certificate III in Early Childhood Education and Care in NSW.
This increased to 11,103 in 2024 after the introduction of fee-free TAFE.
Similarly, in Diploma of Early Childhood Education and Care, enrolments jumped from 2,679 in 2022 to 3,896 in 2024.
No figures were available to demonstrate any take-up in western plains communities.
A spokesperson from TAFE NSW, advised that TAFE enrolments are not allocated at a campus level, and where fee-free TAFE is not available, students may be eligible for equity or merit scholarships, or programs such as 'Smart and Skilled' in order to access subsidised education.
The Free TAFE Bill 2024 is still being considered in parliament. The committee inquiry will hand down its report by the end of February.
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