The NSW Teachers Federation (NSWTF) says it will seek an urgent meeting with Skills Minister John Barilaro to discuss the management restructure and deletion of institutes like TAFE Illawarra.

The state’s 10-institute structure – first introduced in 1992 – ended on Wednesday, making way for a new, single TAFE NSW entity. 

NSWTF TAFE organiser Rob Long said the reforms didn’t deal with the “fundamental problem” plaguing the sector. 

“Smart and Skilled, the contestable funding model, has made vocational education unaffordable for students and resulted in the cuts of courses,” he said.  

“We’re concerned that they [the government] are not really focusing on the real problem, they’re playing with the edges.

“What we need them to look at is the problem that has been caused by the contestable voucher system.” 

Mr Long said the detail of the reform plan wasn’t yet clear, but expected there would be job losses and further cuts to campuses. 

It comes after the doors at TAFE Illawarra’s Dapto campus shut in January, replaced by a Connected Learning Centre in the suburb’s CBD.

Last year, a leaked Cabinet paper listed the Dapto site among the campuses earmarked for sale across the state to raise $63 million to fund a shortfall in the IT budget.

“He [Mr Barilaro] didn’t say asset sales, but definitely he’s announced today [Wednesday] that there’s going to be further campus sales,” he said.

“He calls it recycling [but] what we learnt from the Dapto disaster was that students weren’t consulted, there was no transparency in relation to where the funds go, we still don’t even know what it [the new Dapto shopfront] costs.”

“At this time we’re not confident that this is not just about asset sales because the state government’s got form on that, of getting rid of assets with no transparency that the money comes back into front-line services.” 

Mr Long said the union hoped the changes, which are effective immediately, were not a “band-aid”. 

“We’d like to consult with the minister and we want to talk to him about moving further on this and making sure the recurrent funding is guaranteed back to TAFE and that this is not just another series of cuts,” he said. 

Students will suffer from the “massive TAFE job cuts” announced by the NSW government on Wednesday, the Public Service Association (PSA) says. 

The PSA, which represents the sector’s support staff, said thousands more jobs would be cut.

“The system is broken and now they want to blame the staff and sell it,” PSA assistant general secretary Steve Turner said.

“The government wants to improve IT and online learning in TAFE but it’s now sacking the very staff needed to develop and implement those programs.

“It will have a devastating affect on the regional delivery of vital training and education opportunities.”