TAFE forced into higher ed markets

By Andrew Trounson. PUBLIC TAFEs will be increasingly forced into the deregulating higher education market in order to survive as private providers take huge slices of the vocational training market, LH Martin Institute vocational expert Leesa Wheelahan has warned.
TAFE’s national share of publicly funded students has tumbled in the wake of deregulated subsidy markets in Victoria and South Australia, from 70 per cent in 2009 to just 56 per cent last year. That is a decline of over 50,000 students to 826,000. In contrast private providers now account for 36 per cent of the market as student numbers almost doubled to 537,600. More...