Survey of TAFE employees finds 76 per cent have considered leaving

The union's TAFE NSW Hunter representative Annette Bennett said the Australian Education Union (AEU) State of our TAFE 2020 survey published on Thursday - the first detailed snapshot of the sector for a decade - provided "damning" insight into teachers' experiences.

Key findings in the survey of 1438 respondents from across the country included that 76 per cent had considered leaving the sector in the past three years, with workload and excessive hours, management approach to and lack of support for staff, and arduous compliance requirements cited as the three most common reasons why.

In addition, 73 per cent felt their workload was unmanageable at least half the time.

Ms Bennett said the findings reflected the experience of Hunter teachers and mirrored the results of the TAFE NSW Organisational Health 2019 Survey, which found only 15 per cent of 6773 respondents agreed that TAFE NSW has effective plans for developing and retaining its people.

"I've lost count of the number of teachers I'm supporting across the Hunter region for stress," Ms Bennett said.

"I'll refer them onto our employee assistance program, to the workplace health and safety hotline, but anecdotally I'm hearing that GPs across the Hunter are also gobsmacked at the number of TAFE teachers who are coming to them with stress.

"It's death by 1000 cuts of TAFE and that's being reflected at the frontline.

"It's really heartbreaking to witness this continued gutting of TAFE and see those passionate dedicated teachers broken.

"They're hanging on by their fingernails... most of them are hanging on only because they have a resolve that TAFE can survive, can be restored to what we think is its rightful place as a leading provider of vocational education."

A spokesman for TAFE NSW said the organisation was "Australia's largest education and training provider" and "committed to supporting its staff and students".

"TAFE NSW is undergoing a once-in-a-generation reform to strengthen its position as a strong and sustainable organisation and a flexible and engaging place to learn and work," the spokesman said.

"As One TAFE, TAFE NSW is focused on investing in quality resources and systems to support its staff and deliver consistent, high quality education for its students.

"Indeed, the purpose of the One TAFE reforms is refocusing more resources into frontline teaching while reducing administrative duplication and layers of management."

The survey found that 68 per cent said their institution had stopped providing courses in the last three years.

A lack of funding was the most common reason for closure, followed by insufficient student numbers and a lack of qualified teachers.

Of the respondents, 81 per cent said their department budget has decreased in the past three years and 49 per cent in teaching roles said class sizes had increased.

Working hours across all respondents exceeded contractual hours by an average of 26 per cent.

Ms Bennett said of particular concern in the Hunter was the "inordinate amount of compliance, administration, non-teaching and learning work, non-productive work that's been generated by the fact we're in a market model and have to account for this and that".

She said teachers were also struggling with a "disastrous and dysfunctional IT system" called the Educational Business System.

She said when teaching, they were stretched thin due to the need to put work online and the loss of colleagues and support staff.

A perceived lack of job security, she said, had plunged morale to an "all time low".

"Every teacher has this feeling hanging over them that the government is trying to privatise TAFE," she said.

The AEU said the Report on Government Services had shown total annual government VET expenditure had fallen by $1.6 billion or 21.3 per cent from the 2012 peak of $7.65 billion.

The unions have called on the government to restore funding, saying TAFE can lead the country's post-COVID 19 recovery.

The spokesman said the government invested $2.3 billion in 2019-2020 in the sector, including $1.85 billion to TAFE NSW.

He said fee-free apprenticeships had been in place since July 2018 and the government had injected $285 million over the next four years to fund 100,000 fee-free apprenticeships to address skills shortages.

He said the government had also extended fee-free training to traineeships since the start of the year.

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