From the President: Schools and TAFE as safe workplaces
Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 129 No 6, 23 August 2024, page 7.
Public education and training must provide quality education and training in safe and supportive environments. Schools and TAFE sites are workplaces; therefore, the Department of Education (DoE) and the Department of Youth Justice, Employment, Small Business and Training (DYJESBT) hold a primary duty of care for all their employees in these workplaces.
As National TAFE Day looms on 10 September, we acknowledge the work of the state and federal governments in rebuilding TAFE. But so much more is needed. Australia needs TAFE more than ever to rebuild Australia’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. But thanks to successive government funding cuts, even before the pandemic Australia was suffering a skills crisis, with a shortage of 140,000 skilled workers.
A strong TAFE sector would:
- rebuild a strong workforce of VET graduates equipped with the skills of today and tomorrow
- rebuild the pipeline of essential workers to improve our aged care, childcare and nursing sectors, which are chronically understaffed
- rebuild the careers of the young people who were hit hardest by the pandemic
- rebuild lives after redundancy or career change and help people adapt to technological change
- rebuild sustainable communities in regions already devastated by bushfires and floods, and respond to local labour market needs caused by changing demographics
- rebuild a green economy to train workers and inspire the entrepreneurs of the future to tackle the climate crisis.
TAFE is the best and only way to provide high-quality vocational education to large numbers of Australians. It has strong links with industry and wraparound services to give every student the extra support they may need.
The Queensland Government recently announced the Good Jobs, Great Training package, which will provide pathways into good jobs for Queenslanders while delivering priority skills in traditional and emerging industries, so our communities, industries and economy can thrive.
The strategy further strengthens our TAFE and training system while guiding billions in annual investment in skills over five years – funding 1 million subsidised and free TAFE training places.
It is also Queensland’s roadmap to delivering on the National Skills Agreement, tackling national priorities like critical skills growth, delivering TAFE Centres of Excellence, improving course completions and greater access to foundation skills.
Additionally, securing additional funding would ensure our schools and TAFEs are safe workplaces. In last year’s State Budget Submission, the QTU provided data from a QTU survey of its members (Expect Respect Survey) that examined the extent of violence in state schools and TAFE campuses, including harassment experienced and witnessed. 32 per cent of respondents to the survey had experienced gendered violence, and many responders identified significant barriers to reporting gendered violence, including a lack of information regarding processes, a view that no action would be taken, and concerns that there would be repercussions.
These barriers prevent employees from being safe in their workplace and, in some cases, allow incidents of these types to continue.
The QTU is therefore advocating for the Queensland Government to allocate funds to enable the DYJESBT to reduce the barriers to reporting, which would allow the necessary collection of data to facilitate a thorough investigation into the prevalence of gendered violence in schools and TAFE campuses.
Further to this, the QTU is calling on the DoE and DYJESBT to provide appropriate training for employees and students, as well as resources to support victims of gendered violence.
And finally, the QTU 2024 State Election Asks, which August State Council recently endorsed, call on the state government to ensure safe and secure schools and communities by changing the definition of “public officer” under S340 of the Criminal Code Act to include principals, teachers and other frontline employees and to fully fund state schools and TAFE.