Further education could be out of reach due to a dramatic increase in the South West Institute of Technology’s 2014 course fees, according to South West MLC Adele Farina.
Ms Farina said TAFE courses were no longer the affordable further education option, with some fees costing as much as university courses.
“Students have every right to feel misled when they find out the total cost of the course they wish to take is two or three times the capped fee,” she said.
A local resident, who wanted to remain unnamed, recently raised this issue in a letter to the Mail.
The letter said their partner had enrolled in a six month certificate ll pre-apprenticeship course which had increased from $700 to over $2500 in 2014.
“How can the government justify these increases for a course that if you were able to gain an apprenticeship after completing it, you would be lucky to earn $10 an hour for the next four years?,” it said.
Ms Farina said paying fees for jobs that pay close to a minimum wage may result in people thinking the course was not worth it.
Training and Workforce Development minister Kim Hames introduced a student-focused model called Future Skills WA on January 1, which he said would provide more choice and improved career pathways.
He said it was designed to encourage students into priority industry qualifications which would lead to jobs that were expected to be in demand in the future.
“Qualifications up to a certificate IV level that lead to jobs in demand will receive more state government subsidy and therefore have lower course fees, while qualifications for jobs in lower demand will receive less subsidy and therefore have higher fees,” he said.
Mr Hames said since course fees were introduced in the 1990’s, they had fallen to around eight per cent of the total cost of training, with the state government subsidising the other 92 per cent.
“Fees have not kept pace with increases in the cost of training and this is not sustainable for the long-term,” he said.
Ms Farina said the huge hike in fees would prevent many prospective students from enrolling in further education, and ultimately the consequences would be felt when skills shortages affect the region in the future.
