A Certificate IV Laboratory Technician course at TasTAFE is running at full capacity, with students being turned away – a situation Labor says contradicts the state government’s reasoning for cutting its subsidies.
Shadow skills minister Brian Mitchell visited the Campbell Street campus on Wednesday, meeting students enrolled in the 30-year-old course, which trains lab technicians for roles in pathology, soil testing and school science departments.
“You don’t need a microscope to know what Felix Ellis, the skills minister, is all about in cutting subsidies to this incredibly important course,” Mitchell said.
The government has flagged subsidy cuts to several courses, with Minister Ellis arguing that some programs don’t deliver enough economic benefit.
Student Mali said the course began with 24 or 25 students, but the lab can only hold 18 at full capacity.
“We’ve still got 20 students and all the equipment, there’s a maximum of it for being 18. So we’re having to share equipment and things,” she said.
“There was more people that didn’t even get in, even though it was already oversubscribed.”
Mali, who started in mid-February, said students had already been discussing the financial strain before the subsidy cuts were announced.
“People have been talking about whether they were going to do the next year and that it was already expensive and it’s already going to get more,” she said.
Fellow student Riley Griffiths said the impact of the cuts would be felt across multiple industries, particularly healthcare.
“Being able to diagnose patients with pathology, for example, that’s going to feel a significant impact,” he said.
Griffiths said he is now reconsidering plans to complete the optional second-year diploma because of the higher costs.
“It’s certainly very unlikely for any future students that were going to do it … they’d be thinking of other options like moving to the mainland and doing this course up there,” he said.
Mitchell said the cuts would also flow through to the already unsubsidised diploma year by reducing student numbers and access to lab facilities.
“These subsidy cuts for the Cert IV, they are camouflaged for cutting these courses completely,” he said.
The shadow minister said he had been “inundated” with emails from employers, students and graduates defending the program.
He challenged the government to name any private registered training organisation willing to deliver the course if TasTAFE’s subsidies are withdrawn.
“There’s not even a private RTO willing to take this course on,” he said.
“This course will simply disappear. These students will have nowhere to go.”
“Young Tasmanians should not be paying the price for Liberal budget mismanagement.”
Government minister Kerry Vincent said “efficiencies in TAFE and all other departments” are always being reviewed.
“Certainly the minister has reviewed what the courses are. And TAFE are working through this all the time,” he said.
“Every year, they look at what courses are needed to keep Tasmania trained and with more people coming into healthcare, into childcare, into the trades, this is part of just an ongoing review of courses.”
