The Australian Democrats Lead Candidate for the NSW Legislative Council, Mr Rendall Wagner believes that “Recent TAFE fee hikes show that the current Liberal government has lost sight of the fact that the best way to maintain a competitive workforce is through supporting adult learning and re-training”. “How are we meant to ensure that our workforce has the ever changing skills in a fast moving technological world if governments implement counter-intuitive solutions like hikes in TAFE fees? Cost shouldn’t be a roadblock to further education for the people of NSW.”
Mr Wagner wants to remind the Liberal government that “The NSW workforce is now a very competitive workforce. The reality is that we have people with MBAs packing in factories and university leavers working in call centres. Many of us recognise that learning is now lifelong so we retrain to remain relevant and/or continue to develop skills and knowledge for economic competitiveness. Many of us acquire that retraining and learn new skills and acquire new knowledge in our TAFEs”.
Mr Wagner went on to say “It’s important for people to have faith in our TAFE system. That means a strong well-paid staff teaching a wide range of well-resourced courses.” (Authorised by David King)