Gago “doesn’t know” jobs impact of training shake-up
The minister responsible for implementing a contentious shake-up of skills training that will allocate 90 per cent of subsidised training places to TAFE at the expense of private providers says she doesn’t know what the jobs impact will be.
That’s despite the new WorkReady scheme kicking in within weeks, as training providers, business groups and welfare agencies join a swell of calls for a moratorium on the move.
Gail Gago, who is Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills, said she didn’t know how many private sector jobs would be lost as a result of the changes, nor how many new jobs would be created at TAFE, saying: “You’ll need to ask TAFE that.”
“They’re an independent statutory authority and they do all their own employment schedules, but in terms of the private sector I don’t believe the impact will be that large,” she told 891 ABC radio this morning.
“We’re still working through that, we’re engaging with the private sector, we’re working through what sort of impact that’s going to have on them.”
WorkReady replaces the once highly-touted Skills For All, which was widely acknowledged to have increased training numbers but not produced sufficient employment outcomes. Gago insists regional impact studies had suggested a “benefit” from a higher proportion of TAFE training, but “I’ve already indicated that we don’t know the exact numbers in terms of the exact impact numbers”.
“We’re phasing this in over four years … next year, 2015-16, is going to be the most difficult year, that’s going to be really challenging, particularly for the private sector,” she said.
You might like
Gago returned from China over the weekend, where she was part of a mammoth delegation of Government ministers and agencies who accompanied local government and private sector representatives to spruik for South Australian jobs. But she has jetted back into the eye of a political storm, amid growing claims her management of vocational training is putting private sector jobs on the line.
Regional Skills Training manager Caroline Graham said TAFE would be ill equipped to provide dedicated intensive training in rural SA.
“They’ve had huge redundancies in the last three years (and) there is no delivery of the training that we deliver in a face to face mode offered,” she told the ABC.
“When you look on the TAFE website it simply says that it will be online and for the life of me I cannot understand how someone can learn to weld or drive a tractor online.”
She said the effect on her own business was “in essence a complete wipe-out within the next 12 months”, with the prospect of 30 employees dwindling by two thirds.
“The minister said we had plenty of notice and consultation, but clearly the consultation we have had previously about the Skills For All funding was not about taking away all of our funding to the courses that we offer … otherwise we would’ve been much more vocal much earlier about the impact.”
Gago said “both TAFE and private providers knew that Skills for All was a once off injection of funds … to deliver our 100,000 training places”.
“We achieved it ahead of schedule, but those funds have been fully expended so we now have to make changes to be able to better target our training outcomes,” she said.
Stay informed, daily
Opposition spokesman David Pisoni said the minister’s performance “makes a mockery of the claim there was consultation”.
“She was totally oblivious to the impact this decision is having on training in SA, and in particular the non-TAFE providers,” he said.
“She’s had 10 days to be fully briefed by her department and hasn’t taken the opportunity to do it.”
He said the change would put a squeeze on subsidised training places, on the back of a recent decline in training figures.
“We’ve seen an overall reduction in training because of the economy and now we’re seeing a larger reduction in training again because of the management of this minister,” he said.
Business SA, which initially welcomed the WorkReady scheme’s focus on “actual job outcomes”, is now leading the charge against it, demanding Gago “hold off” on the changes pending a meeting of all stakeholders.
“The State Government’s decision has blind-sided the private training sector and industry,” said Business SA’s director of policy Rick Cairney.
“This decision will result in job losses and business closures. The minister must put her decision on hold and properly consult with training providers and industry to sort out this mess … (she) clearly needs to understand the full extent of the negative impact this decision will have on employment and training in South Australia.”
In a rare achievement, the Government has managed to unite the business and social services lobbies, both of which have come out strongly against WorkReady, with the SA Council of Social Service and the Mental Health Coalition of SA adding their voices to a growing chorus of disapproval.
They said ditching the defunct Skills For All scheme would slash subsidised training in the midst of a major state unemployment crisis, and “destroy investments in high quality training infrastructure that Registered Training Organisations have built up over the last decade”.
“Many of our member organisations are extremely concerned about the consequences that will flow from this decision,” said SACOSS executive director Ross Womersley.
“Our members developed their training arms in large part because TAFE had limited relationships with sector organisations and was not managing to provide the specialist services and support that disadvantaged members of our community needed to navigate the pathway to employment.”
Want to see more stories from InDaily SA in your Google search results?
- Click here to set InDaily SA as a preferred source.
- Tick the box next to "InDaily SA". That's it.
