FREE TAFE OR NO TAFE?
Member for Western Victoria, Bev McArthur recently used an adjournment debate to ask the Minister for Higher Education, Gayle Tierney MP, about the reduction in available courses for students at the Gordon TAFE in Geelong.
The Gordon in Geelong is one of the oldest and most historic TAFE colleges in the state.
Students who were enrolled in the fashion industry course are now expected to travel to Melbourne for classes, rather than complete them at the Gordon.
Mrs McArthur said “Minister, you trumpet the policy of free TAFE. Well, no TAFE is what we have ended up with in Geelong.”
“If anything, we should be getting people out of Melbourne and into the country, and we should be using the great Gordon TAFE to get students to come to Geelong to study, not go the other way.”
“For these students it is costly and it is time-consuming. They have got to leave early and leave their homes and families, and they should not have to do that.”
"This course is not one of the government’s ‘free’ courses but all Geelong and district students should be encouraged and enabled to study locally."
24 March 2020