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The Victorian government has urged Swinburne University to reconsider plans to shut down its 35-year-old horticulture program, as jitters grow over the health of the vocational education and training sector.
The program, which includes courses in landscape construction, nursery operations and conservation and ecosystem management, has lost close to $4 million over the past five years.
Horticulture teacher Bec Bennett at Swinburne’s Wantirna campus. The university may dump its horticulture course.Credit: Darrian Traylor
Staff and students will learn on Thursday whether the program based in the eastern Melbourne suburb of Wantirna – with dozens of staff and more than 500 students – will be discontinued at the end of the year.
Some horticulture courses at Swinburne are free for students under the state government’s free TAFE policy.
A Victorian government spokesperson said the Office of TAFE Co-ordination and Delivery did not support scrapping the training and had requested that Swinburne not close the course.
“We are extremely disappointed about the potential closure of Swinburne University’s horticultural offerings,” they said.
Swinburne said the proposal to discontinue the horticulture program was made “after assessing the courses delivered against Swinburne’s strategic priorities, the demand for skills and commercial viability”.
It declined to elaborate on why the course had lost so much money, although the government funded per hour rate for vocational education and training is low relative to university rates.
Education expert Peter Hurley said the expected end of horticulture at Swinburne highlighted the hollowing out of the broader vocational education and training (VET) sector, which covers apprenticeships, TAFEs and various programs delivered by government, community and for-profit providers.
“The funding rates are relatively low, and the options to study much better at higher education, where there are better facilities and more money, [so] that a spiral occurs,” said Hurley, a policy fellow at Victoria University’s Mitchell Institute.
“Apprenticeships are relatively strong and there are some strong pockets elsewhere, but overall, it can be very difficult to operate VET courses.
Victoria University’s Peter Hurley says vocational education and training is in crisis.Credit: Scott McNaughton
“The number of enrolments dwindle. The institution cuts back on the courses and the resources it puts into delivery. Eventually, it collapses.”
Hurley said the vocational education and training sector was expected to do a lot with a little, leading to a slump in the proportion of young people enrolled in it compared with university courses since the 1980s.
“The bulk of enrolments are in courses associated with regulatory requirements, such as licensing. It means it can be difficult to disentangle how many students are doing VET because they want to, instead of because they have to.”
Education expert Claire Field said Productivity Commission research showed real recurrent funding for vocational education and training fell everywhere but NSW and Tasmania between 2012 and 2021.
Government-funded enrolments in vocational education and training across Australia fell by 6.1 per cent in the first nine months of 2022, year on year, the latest official data shows. In Victoria, the annual decrease was 5.9 per cent.
Yet the country’s most in-demand jobs require vocational education and training, not tertiary, qualifications.
Aged care and disabled care workers, child carers, construction managers, motor mechanics, retail managers, chefs, and metal fitters and machinists are among the most sought-after professions, according to Jobs and Skills Australia.
Federal Skills and Training Minister Brendan O’Connor said the jobs of the future would be in renewable energy, the defence industry, the production of medicines and other manufacturing.
The federal and state governments are negotiating a new five-year National Skills Agreement that will provide an additional 300,000 fee-free TAFE and vocational education and training places from 2024.
The state government spokesperson said horticultural courses continue to be delivered at TAFEs across Victoria.
“We will continue to ensure the provision of high-quality training in horticulture is available to students in the eastern metropolitan area,” they said.
Swinburne said it was focused on ensuring students could “complete their courses with minimal disruption, either by transitioning to another metropolitan provider if the decision is made to discontinue Swinburne’s courses, or continuing delivery for current enrolled students where an alternative can’t be found”.
Registered nurse and mother-of-two Josephine Maggs started a two-year diploma in landscape design at Swinburne this year, for a career change. She said the university had not treated horticulture students or staff with respect.
“Landscape design was very therapeutic for me, and I was really enjoying the course,” she said.
“We believe we have to transfer to Holmesglen the following year [2024] if we want to continue, as they are the only other diploma provider.”
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