By Dinoo Kelleghan 23 January 2015
Hundreds of visitors at the Tamworth Country Music Festival are stopping to listen to Federation's call for the State Government to restore funding to TAFE and halt the slide towards privatised training.
"We're hearing mind-blowing stories from other states about what students are experiencing with private training providers," Assistant General Secretary (Post School Education) Maxine Sharkey said from Tamworth where she and her team are campaigning hard on the Stop TAFE Cuts campaign in the run-up to the NSW election on March 28.
"That's allowing us to talk to our people about what might happen if we follow the Victorian or South Australian example." In Victoria, private providers have been allowed to take over 70 per cent of the training market, with profit-taking overshadowing quality delivery.
"The festival gives us such a great opportunity because we're able to talk to such a wide range of people - from other states and territories as well as from NSW," Ms Sharkey said.
"We're getting people to think about TAFE cuts in relation to state elections and also the next federal election; we're talking to hundreds of people here."
Ms Sharkey said festivalgoers were "more than happy" to sign up to the Stop TAFE Cuts campaign, and the response was across the board - "from every state and territory, every age, every background".
The team at Tamworth are hearing first-hand about how difficult it is for country people to get to TAFE for their courses. "When the TAFE in their town is closed down or the course they want is stopped they have to travel to the next town. That could be 100km away. Then that TAFE gets closed down," the AGS said. All these experiences were being relayed to other festivalgoers, with the Stop TAFE Cuts booth being a useful conduit of information.
Hundreds of visitors at the Tamworth Country Music Festival are stopping to listen to Federation's call for the State Government to restore funding to TAFE and halt the slide towards privatised training.
"We're hearing mind-blowing stories from other states about what students are experiencing with private training providers," Assistant General Secretary (Post School Education) Maxine Sharkey said from Tamworth where she and her team are campaigning hard on the Stop TAFE Cuts campaign in the run-up to the NSW election on March 28.
"That's allowing us to talk to our people about what might happen if we follow the Victorian or South Australian example." In Victoria, private providers have been allowed to take over 70 per cent of the training market, with profit-taking overshadowing quality delivery.
"The festival gives us such a great opportunity because we're able to talk to such a wide range of people - from other states and territories as well as from NSW," Ms Sharkey said.
"We're getting people to think about TAFE cuts in relation to state elections and also the next federal election; we're talking to hundreds of people here."
Ms Sharkey said festivalgoers were "more than happy" to sign up to the Stop TAFE Cuts campaign, and the response was across the board - "from every state and territory, every age, every background".
The team at Tamworth are hearing first-hand about how difficult it is for country people to get to TAFE for their courses. "When the TAFE in their town is closed down or the course they want is stopped they have to travel to the next town. That could be 100km away. Then that TAFE gets closed down," the AGS said. All these experiences were being relayed to other festivalgoers, with the Stop TAFE Cuts booth being a useful conduit of information.
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