By JOLENE OGLE
The future of the Noosa TAFE site remains unclear despite the introduction of a new bill into parliament that will return the ownership of all QLD training facilities to the government.
The Queensland Training Asset Management Bill 2015 is designed to return Qld training assets to the Department of Education and Training, preventing them from being sold to private investors.
Minister for Training and Skills Yvette D’Ath said the bill was a significant step in implementing the Rescuing TAFE commitment.
“Abolishing the Queensland Training Asset Management Authority (QTAMA) and returning the management and control of the state’s training assets to the Department of Education will provide certainty to TAFE Queensland,” she said.
However, Member for Noosa Glen Elmes said it is unclear whether all assets will be “rescued” or just TAFEs that are currently operating.
“The bill is all about TAFE… the government wants to restore it but we don’t know yet how they want to restore it. We don’t know in terms of the Noosa TAFE college, or others that may have closed, whether it’s the government’s intention to reopen them,” he said.
“I’ve been asking questions, to see if this Bill applies to Noosa, but I’m yet to get a response.
“I will continue to ask them in regards of what the government’s view of Noosa is.”
The Noosa TAFE site was closed in July 2014 after dwindling enrolment numbers made the facility unviable.
The TAFE originally opened in 2006 with 714 students and an arts-based program list, but by 2013 student numbers had dropped to 265, 40 of whom were high school students who didn’t access the campus.
Mr Elmes said it wasn’t surprising the campus closed with a course program that wasn’t training and preparing locals for the work force.
“The TAFE was never dreamed of being, nor did it become, a place where people would go and gain skills that would prepare them for the work force,” he said.
Mr Elmes said the TAFE was “clearly not working”, and to make the centre viable in the future the TAFE facility will need to become a training space for work-ready skills.
“It must be a meaningful college that teaches people skills that enables them to get a job,” he said. “We’ve had enough basket weaving classes.”
