TAFE SA

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:35): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills a question relating to TAFE.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: In response to a question from me on TAFE staffing on 18 June, the minister asserted that TAFE is an independent statutory board run and managed by its own independent board. Specifically, she said that decisions on staffing are made by the board and not by the government. The opposition has obtained a Treasury document dated 6 August 2014 which apparently shows that TAFE is operating under an FTE cap and that we will see a reduction in the FTE cap from 2,319 in 2014-15 to 1,799 in 2017-18. I ask the minister:

1. Is TAFE operating under an FTE cap?

2. Is TAFE free to employ staff beyond the FTE cap?

3. Does she stand by her statement that TAFE is independent and that staffing decisions are made by the TAFE board?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills, Minister for Science and Information Economy, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Business Services and Consumers) (14:36): I thank the member for his question. Indeed, TAFE is an independent statutory authority, and operational matters such as decisions about staffing and training delivery are made by the independent TAFE board. The staffing numbers that I think the honourable member refers to that were quoted by The Advertiser recently I understand are derived from a Treasury calculation reflecting the budget savings task for TAFE SA as a staffing FTE estimate. That is an administrative way that savings tasks are expressed, and there is nothing unusual about that.

I have been advised that staffing across TAFE SA is dependent on the obvious things like the revenues that they earn from fee-for-service and also a growing international business as well as obviously state subsidies. TAFE SA engages staff to support its business activity, making regular assessments about its yearly training needs and also the reallocating of its budget for FTEs and other areas as needed. So, there is that ability, as their revenues grow, for instance, if they so decide, to put on additional FTEs.

It is highly likely that that FTE figure that we saw expressed in the paper will be very different to those quoted in that article. Also, TAFE SA's teaching model, as we know, continues to evolve in order to provide more flexible delivery options for students, particularly taking advantage of the latest technology. Using improved IT technologies, as I have talked about in this place before, that changing face of education tends to rely less on traditional face-to-face teaching models.

The vocational education and training sector in South Australia is robust. It had more than 200 qualified training providers meeting the training needs of over 165,000 people in 2013, according to our National Centre for Vocational Education and Research.

The state government continues to invest considerable additional resources into the vocational education sector, including $27 million in the 2013-14 budget and $63 million in the 2014-15 budget. These additional resources are leading to more training outcomes in TAFE and other training providers, so much so that we have reached our training target of an additional 100,000 training places three years earlier, and exceeded it by 50 per cent. As I have stated in this place before, the state government has provided strong support for TAFE in the past, and we are committed to doing so in the future as well, including up to $240 million in new infrastructure.