AEU National TAFE Council AGM, Canberra

Acknowledgements omitted.

It’s wonderful to be here to celebrate the fantastic work that the AEU does: to advocate for our amazing TAFE teachers, for TAFE institutes, and for how we can continue to make TAFE even better.

The role everyone in this room plays is pivotal in our nation’s education landscape, in shaping Australians and Australia’s future.

As we prepare to mark National TAFE Day tomorrow, it is a great time to come together to celebrate all the teachers, support staff and students who are part of our TAFE system.

TAFE teachers are the best advocates for TAFE – they know what works and what doesn’t. They know how to bring together the best of our education and training systems to prepare their students for the future.

And how TAFE unlocks new opportunities that can set people up for life.

This ties in with a core value of our Government: that no one is held back and no one left behind.

The Albanese Government has been working from day one to put TAFE back at the heart of our training system, where it belongs. 

Because we know that TAFE changes lives and plays a vital role in giving people the skills they need for secure, well-paid jobs.

And TAFEs are integral parts of our community, responsible for delivering training and skilling Australians in more than 300 locations across metropolitan, regional and rural communities.

They’re the largest employer of VET staff and the largest trainer of VET teachers, trainers and assessors.

TAFEs are places of innovation for a range of industries, providing place-based and locally focused solutions to the skills and workforce needs of the local community, and Australia more widely.

And perhaps most important of all, TAFEs provide pathways into lifelong learning.

This Adult Learners Week is a chance for us to highlight that there’s never been a better time to explore new opportunities through TAFE – no matter your age, or where you’re from.

When our Government came to office, we faced the worst skills shortage in more than half a century and the second worst in all advanced economies.

While Covid certainly had an impact, the skills shortage ran deeper.

It was critical that we acted quickly to start turning things around – and we knew that in TAFEs we had the partners we needed to make this happen.

We know that within the next decade, nine in ten new jobs will require post-secondary qualifications — and of that almost half of those will be through vocational education and training.

Through TAFEs, our Government is delivering the skills and training needed to grow the Australian economy — caring for Australians, building the homes we need, creating a Future Made in Australia, and addressing the nation’s skills shortages.

Our National Skills Agreement locked a $30 billion investment into VET, with at least 70 per cent of Commonwealth funding for VET delivery and capital directed to TAFE.

We’ve invested $50 million for a TAFE Technology Fund to upgrade facilities and work with TAFEs on opportunities to further raise standards.

We’re rolling out TAFE Centres of Excellence, providing specialised training in the critical areas of health, manufacturing, clean energy, housing and defence.

Our Government is also establishing a National TAFE Network to complement and maximise the benefits of initiatives under the National Skills Agreement, including the TAFE Centres of Excellence. 

It will foster collaboration among TAFE teachers and administrators, enabling the development of shared curriculum and course materials, piloting of innovative teaching practices, and creation of communities of practice to support the TAFE workforce.

 And I am pleased that it will be supporting our fantastic TAFE teachers by helping them share what works with their colleagues across Australia.

Because our TAFE teachers really are at the front line, helping train future generations with the skills we need to get ahead as a nation.

We’re also working together with states and territories on VET Workforce Blueprint projects, co investing up to $170 million to make sure we attract and retain more teachers and assessors to the sector.

Our investment will build a better understanding of the VET workforce through improved workforce data and research, and help inform responses to support the workforce now and into the future.

This work is progressing in partnership with states and territories, and with the expertise of Jobs and Skills Australia.

Local initiatives are also being supported to help strengthen and build the VET workforce.

For example, we’ve partnered with the New South Wales Government to invest an additional $32.6 million to train VET teachers, as part of the New South Wales TAFE Paid to Learn program.

The Albanese and Minns Governments will match funding of $16.3 million each, aimed at strengthening the VET workforce.

This investment will double the number of participants studying the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment, qualifying up to 136 new VET teachers in 2025, with funding to qualify up to a further 100 TAFE teachers each year through to 2028.

It will also expand into priority areas such as net zero and essential care services and to regional areas including Wagga Wagga, Tamworth, Dubbo, and Broken Hill.

Since launching in 2022, the program has delivered strong results, with:

• 267 graduates now employed as TAFE New South Wales teachers, achieving a 96 per cent retention rate
• More than 71,000 additional teaching hours delivered
• 48 per cent of participants based in regional New South Wales, and
• 6 per cent of participants identifying as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.

We are also supporting more students to enjoy the benefits of VET with Free TAFE.

From its start in 2023 through to our most recent data in March 2025, Free TAFE has supported more than 650,000 enrolments nationally – and more than 170,000 course completions.

Free TAFE opens doors for so many Australians who would otherwise miss out.

That’s why I’m proud that we’ve seen:

• more than 224,000 enrolments by young Australians
• more than 160,000 enrolments by job seekers
• more than 53,000 enrolments by people with disability 
• and more than 39,000 enrolments by First Nations Australians.

More than six in 10 places have been taken up by women, and 34 per cent of enrolments are in regional and remote Australia.

That’s a lot of numbers – but all of them demonstrations that Free TAFE is making a difference. It’s not a ‘band-aid’, as the Shadow Minister suggested in Parliament last week.

The Coalition suggests Australians don’t value Free TAFE because they don’t pay for it.

How wrong they are.

Australians can see Free TAFE for what it is – their Government backing them in, to get the skills they want for the jobs our country needs.

I’m well aware that this work is only the beginning.

We need to work hard to ensure TAFE is embedded in the centre of our VET system – for good.

There’s lots to do in the Skills and Training portfolio over the next three years.

I’m grateful for all the hard work that the AEU and everyone in this room is doing – and I look forward to continuing to work alongside you.

I thank the AEU for its important work to support the TAFE sector and all the amazing people that work in it, and through them the students that build their skills with a vocational education.

Let me get in early to say ‘Happy National TAFE Day.’

Thank you.

ENDS