TAFE is the reason so many people are able to get on with their lives. When a person loses their long standing job or needs to change career paths for various reasons, TAFE is there for retraining.

Where would we be without retraining? There would be so many more people giving up, hiding at home on benefits from the government.

TAFE is the alternative and adds so much value to the economy by educating and providing opportunity to so many people. I would not be working in a job where I can afford a mortgage if it was not for TAFE. As a mature age student at TAFE I have gone from once in my life having the power cut off and with my last having to choose whether I fed my dog that day or myself, (I chose to feed my dog) to now working in middle management in construction and infrastructure for a six figure salary, thanks to TAFE because although I had the experience to do what I do. I would not have been employable without my qualifications.

So there is plenty of reason why we need to keep TAFE the way it is and not destroy or eliminate the opportunities that it provides which translates into jobs, which translates into living the way my Australian parents and their great grandparents lived with the opportunities that our great country always provided in the past and taking those forward into the future.

It is a logical conclusion. No changes to TAFE.

Nicole Radinger

Safety and Quality Facilitator TfNSW