South Australian TAFE (Technical and Further Education) recovering from its 2017 setback
A protest in 2019 at the closure of the Port Adelaide TAFE campus.
TAFE (Technical and Further Education) in South Australia is looking to regain composure after being hit by a training scandal in 2017 when the Australian Skills Quality Authority suspended 14 courses, affecting around 800 students, for being substandard.
Besides the sacking of its chairman and most of the board, TAFE’s financial position was addressed by the new Liberal state government in 2018 with a $109 million injected over five years but campuses to be closed at Tea Tree Gully, Port Adelaide, Urrbrae, Parafield, Wudinna, Roxby Downs and Coober Pedy.
Founded in 1971, TAFE SA has been delivering vocational education and training (VET) to around 70,000 students each year – about the same number of students as all of South Australia's public universities. Its 1,300 qualifications have ranged from certificates through to advanced diplomas and bachelor's degrees. It also delivers skill sets and customized short courses.
Students develop skills in sectors such as building and construction; tourism and hospitality; creative arts; mining, engineering and transport; primary industries, animal and laboratory sciences; community services, health and lifestyle; business, justice and information technology; language, literacy, numeracy; and Indigenous education.
TAFE SA's training centre include the Tonsley campus, opened in 2014; the Adelaide College of the Arts, the International Centre for Hospitality, Tourism and Food Studies, training restaurant and Mining Engineering and Transport Centre at Regency Campus; driving simulators for the mining industry; truck-mounted mobile engineering training units and virtual enterprises.
In 2012, TAFE SA became a statutory corporation separate from the state government’s further education, employment, science and technology department when it also merged its three districts (institutes) into one.
