Council appeals for Gordon cash review: Funding’s ‘belly flop’

By Cherie Donnellan
GEELONG’S council has called on State Government to review $14.6 million in funding stripped from Gordon Institute of TAFE.
But a Liberal MP has defended the Government’s funding cuts as targeting “wasteful” programs training students in subjects such as fitness and belly dancing.
Geelong councillor Jan Farrell said the funding cut affected Gordon’s courses lower than Certificate III.
The cuts could reduce some TAFE’s funding by 25 per cent, she said.
Gordon was “foreshadowing potential staff and course reductions”, Cr Farrell warned.
“These funding cuts could significantly limit the opportunities for people looking to gain new workplace skills.”
But Liberal Member for Western Victoria Simon Ramsay said the statewide cuts were aimed at programs training students in jobs with limited opportunities.
Enrolment in courses like belly dancing had risen as much as 4000 per cent but training in areas of skills shortages, such as carpentry and nursing, were only up 10 per cent.
Mr Ramsay said the TAFE sector needed “refocussing”, with cuts to “wasteful” courses in recreation and fitness.
Labor had created dishonest “hysteria” over the Government’s funding, he said.
“We’re prioritising quality programs that meet industry needs.”
Mr Ramsay said the Baillieu Government would increase VET sector funding by $1 billion over the next four years for “sustainable programs”.
The previous Labor government’s VET and TAFE system was an “unsustainable model…open to abuse, and abused it was,” he said.
“It’s about time the never-ending drip feed of cash into programs of suspect relevance was filtered and, in some cases, even turned off.
“There’s an abundance of people enrolling in programs within less relevant industries that will not be able to have job tenure. What we want is courses that up-skill potential workers in areas where they can get a job.”
Gordon chief executive officer Grant Sutherland said the institute had yet to determine cuts to courses and jobs.
“We are still waiting to receive further information from the State Government on the transition plans.”