Submission to the Senate Employment, Workplace Relations and Education Committee: inquiry into the Australian Technical Colleges (flexibility in achieving Australia's skill needs) Bill 2005

The Australian Education Union (AEU) is extremely concerned about the introduction of Australian Technical Colleges (ATCs). It believes they have been introduced without proper consideration of how they might operate. They are a dangerous and poorly considered experiment using young people as guinea pigs. They are likely to have a deleterious effect on the students who attend them, and will negatively affect other schools and TAFE colleges in their geographic area, the delivery of vocational education and training (VET) courses across all schools and students and the education system generally. At the same time, they have limited capacity to alleviate the skills shortages currently being experienced.

This submission will consider a number of the issues and problems that lead to the AEU’s concern about and opposition to ATCs.

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