Councillor Bradbery will call on the council to write to NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli to register its concern over the government's decision to cut TAFE funding and the recently announced Smart and Skilled Reforms to the vocational education sector.

Cr Bradbery said the council should be concerned about the impact of these cuts on the Illawarra, which had one of the highest unemployment rates in the state.

"Recent unemployment figures show that the overall unemployment rate in the Wollongong area is 7.3 per cent, with youth unemployment sitting at 12.9 per cent - both these figures are above the state average.

"Plus in this region a number of major industries have recently had to downsize, or even close, and a great number of employees have lost their jobs.

"The TAFE sector not only provides initial training for young people so they can get into the workforce, it also provides retraining to enable people to re-enter the workforce after redundancy or long periods of unemployment."

In September Mr Piccoli announced that $1.7 billion would be cut from the education budget, with $80 million - and 800 jobs - to be cut from TAFE NSW.

Then last month the State Government announced the Smart and Skilled reforms which will see TAFE colleges forced to compete with private providers for government funding from 2014.

Cr Bradbery wants the council to request that Mr Piccoli reverse these recent decisions regarding the TAFE sector until at least 2014 to allow further consultation with stakeholders in the region, and throughout the state.