TAFE stands for Technical and Further Education and is a network of government owned colleges located across Perth and Western Australia. TAFE Western Australia (WA) has over 100,000 Australian and 4500 international students studying a wide range of certificates, diplomas and associate degrees.
Technical and Further Education (TAFE) Institutes enrol over 1.4 million students and are a vital part of the public education system. The AEU represents almost 175,000 education staff including those employed in 68 TAFE Institutes around Australia.
In the past 7 years the Government has cut back funding per student contact hour by 20%.
New Government initiatives are not being funded.
This has resulted in:
More cuts to nominal hours.
Increased class sizes.
Increased workloads for Lecturers.
Insufficient money available for the development of resources.
Feweer support staff .
Lecturers are being told that they must take on extra duties.
In Australia, more people study at TAFE than university. This is because TAFE courses are shorter, more practical, less expensive and closely linked to industry. Most courses also include an on the job work experience component which ensures the student gains the practical skills and industry knowledge that employers are looking for. This is one of the reasons why TAFE is so popular for students interested in future employment and migration opportunities in Australia.
TAFE Colleges offer over 100 diploma courses in areas including Hospitality & Tourism, Commercial Cookery & Bakery, Business & Accounting, Art & Design, Beauty & Fashion, Nursing, Aged Care, Child Care, Community Welfare Work, Engineering, Computing & IT, Mass Comm & Multimedia, Health & Fitness, Horticulture, Commercial Pilot License, Aircraft Engineering, Animal Studies and English Language Courses. We have recently introduced a range of construction trade courses that are in high demand by Australian industry and are on the Commonwealth Government's Skills Occupation List. These courses include bricklaying, tiling, plastering and carpentry.