A Shorten Labor Government will deliver the quality schools, universities, TAFE and apprentice programs people need to prepare them for the jobs of the future.
Australia’s economy is changing fast and the skills Australians need to get well-paid and secure jobs are changing too.
Australia needs to invest in education, skills and training more than ever.
In this year’s budget, Malcolm Turnbull is cutting another $600 million from TAFE and apprentices, $3.8 billion from universities and $22 billion from schools.
Australia now has 130,000 fewer apprentices and trainees than when the Liberals were elected.
TAFE and vocational education funding – and the number of supported students – are lower than they were a decade ago. This is despite an increasing number of jobs requiring vocational skills.
Malcolm Turnbull has no plan for education and no plan for Australia’s future.
Labor will reverse Malcolm Turnbull’s $600 million cuts to skills and training and invest in TAFE and apprenticeships by:
- Investing an additional $637.6 million into TAFE and vocational education - reversing the government’s 2017 budget cuts in full
- Guaranteeing at least two thirds of public vocational education funding for TAFE
- Investing in a new $100 million Building TAFE for the Future Fund – to re-establish TAFE facilities in regional communities, meet local industry needs and support teaching for the digital economy
- Setting a target of one in ten apprentices on all Commonwealth priority projects and major Government Business Enterprise projects.
- Investing in pre-apprentice programs – preparing up to 10,000 young jobseekers to start an apprenticeship.
- Establishing an Advanced Entry Adult Apprenticeships program – to fast-track apprenticeships for up to 20,000 people facing redundancy or whose jobs have been lost
This will reverse the decline in TAFE and apprentice programs. Only Labor will provide more opportunity for Australians to gain the skills they need to get good quality jobs.
A fact sheet is available here.
THURSDAY, 11 MAY 2017
