It is no secret that construction and infrastructure will play a vital role in Tasmania's economic recovery.
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Tasmania's trades will help to fill the void left by tourism, which will take time to return to pre-pandemic prosperity.
For trades to help fill that void, the industry will need a steady stream of qualified apprentices and trainees, with most of them to come from TAFE.
Which is why the panic that has ensued regarding TasTAFE's potential move from face-to-face delivery to online delivery is justified. Whether or not the email sent to students was a mistake, it raises serious questions about the future of vocational education in Tasmania.
It is no secret that VET has been chronically underfunded for decades - by several governments, who have systematically drained the coffers. The result of this chronic pillaging of funds is a devalued system, which does not receive the attention it deserves - from neither governments or the community. Students vote with their feet, with increasing numbers of young people heading to university education and declining numbers of the same cohort entering vocational education or trades.
The number of Tasmanians who are completing apprenticeships is also declining, whether they study VET at TasTAFE or a private RTO. Funding for VET is complicated, it comes from several different buckets at a state and federal level, but in Tasmania, TasTAFE receives 80 per cent of the state's training budget. However, with the state and national economy beginning to wake from its post-pandemic slumber, a unique opportunity to overhaul the funding model has presented itself.
With infrastructure and construction pegged as the golden goose that can take us away from recession, now is the time to fund the education system that supports it.
Now is the time to build a solid foundation for the VET system, to simplify the funding model and invest in the industries that will likely pull us from the clutches of a pandemic recession.
Tasmania will surely benefit from a robust TasTAFE, but so will other states, so it's time the federal government took responsibility.