Illawarra TAFE students will tweet, post and email their dissatisfaction with cuts to the sector during a lunchtime event at Wollongong campus as part of today's National TAFE Day.
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NSW Teachers Federation Wollongong branch secretary Kerry Stratton said students and teachers would meet to share a sausage sizzle and their stories on how state government cuts have affected them.
They will also be able to air their grievances to politicians including Wollongong MP Noreen Hay and union representatives including South Coast Labour Council secretary Arthur Rorris who will speak at the event.
Ms Stratton said students would also be encouraged to use Twitter, Facebook and email to spread their message.
"Events will be held at campuses across Australia as part of a national campaign to stop the cuts to TAFE," Ms Stratton said.
"This event at the Wollongong campus will provide a focus point for teachers and students to talk about how there needs to be a stop to the cuts in funding. There needs to be a restoration of funding and there needs to be a relook at the whole aspect of training involving TAFE in NSW."
In September, NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli announced $1.7 billion would be cut from the overall education budget over four years, with $80 million - and 800 jobs - to be cut from TAFE NSW.
Ms Stratton said staff were losing their jobs, while students' choices were being diminished with courses being cut, fees being increased and some campuses at risk of closure.
"It's important to hear from the students about how the cuts to TAFE funding are affecting their own course progression, their skilling, their training and reskilling," she said.
"In our modern economy it is now expected that we will need to be completely retrained across our working lives approximately nine times - this means we have to have access to re-skilling and development.
"Not all qualifications for work involve university; in fact most qualifications for employment require vocational qualifications.
"TAFE has always provided an important pathway to skills and employment in the Illawarra and across the state - now new barriers are being thrown up by the government cuts to TAFE in NSW."
Ms Stratton said the federal government had just announced an inquiry into TAFE so it was important to make the most of the opportunity, to let the government know the damage budget cuts were doing to TAFE institutes nationwide.
