A NSW government minister has launched a blistering attack on the federal government's administration of the scandal-ridden private vocational education sector.
In an exclusive interview, NSW Minister for Skills and Industry John Barilaro told Fairfax Media that his ministerial federal coalition colleagues "have made errors that I would not have ever believed from a government" in allowing the private vocational education sector to blow out to an expected $4 billion in public debt this year.
Mr Barilaro is responsible for vocational education and TAFE in NSW, which has been beset by potential campus closures and the loss of up to 5000 teachers and 60,000 students over three years through deregulation under his own government's Smart and Skilled policy.
Despite overseeing the state government's move to more privatised vocational education, Mr Barilaro said he "couldn't believe any federal government could have administered a program like they have".
"I think they have made errors that I would not have ever believed from a government. I mentioned that to the previous minister, [Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham] and the current minister [Luke Hartsuyker]. How have we allowed a private provider in one year to have $300,000 in funding go to a hundred million in funding?" he said.
The federal vocational training sector has been plagued by allegations of dodgy private providers recruiting tens of thousands of students through free laptops and targeting illiterate, disabled students to sign them up to tens of thousands of dollars worth of taxpayer-funded student debt through the federal government's HECS-style VET-FEE help program.
Three Sydney private colleges are currently being pursued for their "unconscionable conduct" by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in the Federal Court for up to $200 million combined in taxpayer funding.
One of them, AIPE in the Sydney CBD, has been granted a stay to continuing operating by the Federal Court, despite being paid up to $1 million a graduate last year.
Mr Barilaro said the lack of federal regulation in the area had allowed private providers to sign up thousands of students without oversight.
"There has got to be a change in the way they fund. It has to be on completions, not just enrolments," he said.
Mr Hartsuyker, the federal Minister for Vocational Education and Skills, said that the government was focused on building a new model that delivers quality training to students at an affordable price.
"As part of our reforms, we also announced that we would freeze the scheme at 2015 levels ahead of the introduction of fundamentally new model in 2017," he said.
While the private vocational education sector has made hundreds of millions of dollars out of de-regulation, the amount of enrollments in the state's public TAFE institution have fallen by up to 60,000 since 2012, forcing the state government to also freeze fees this year in a bid to claw back student numbers.
Mr Barilaro acknowledged that the state government had made mistakes in its administration of the public education provider.
"I accept that we did not get all the settings right," he said. "Yes, there are job losses because demand is down, but we can't have empty classrooms with teachers. That is why we have a highly casualised workforce with TAFE."
Face-to-face contact with teachers in areas such as carpentry and plumbing has been cut by up to two-thirds at some TAFE institutes.
Mr Barilaro said front-line funding had been swallowed up by administration costs, with up to 60 cents in every dollar going to overheads.
"We have become top-heavy as an organisation. We seem to have excesses in public relations and personal assistants, backroom and middle management; these are resources that aren't actually being delivered on the front line."
The President of the NSW Teachers Federation, Maurie Mulheron, said Mr Barilaro's comments were "populist nonsense, typical of a politician backed into a corner".
"The minister can't escape the fact that his government implemented the Smart and Skilled policy and that is the reason for the disaster that is now unfolding in NSW," he said.
"We are losing TAFE colleges, teachers are being sacked, fees are going through the roof, enrolments are dropping and private providers have low completion rates. That is the current state of play".
Mr Barilaro said that the market had changed and TAFE had to adapt to the private sector.
"Does that mean we can reverse anything? No. Reform unfortunately brings pain, but it doesn't make it wrong."
