Labor Party people use TAFE as a synonym for training – Tanya Plibersek certainly did last week when she announced her much applauded proposal for comprehensive post-secondary review. This leaves the for-profit VET sector up competency creek without an accredited training paddle. But few other than private providers care, all of the private sector is still unfairly smeared by the VET FEE fiasco. As Rod Camm from the Australian Council for Private Education and Training put it yesterday;

“Outside of the failures of government administration and regulation and the ethics of less than 20 providers, the evidence shows that the majority of public and private providers are delivering what is required. Private providers continue to enjoy student and employer satisfaction levels on par with TAFEs and yet are consigned to the bin as restricting student choice is now the main game.

If TAFE is losing funding, it is because students make choices and that states and territories are pulling funding as fast as they can – that is what needs to be fixed.”