Rebuilding skills and training
Growing up, a quality education opened up so many opportunities for me. Every Australian deserves access to a quality education.
Federal Labor has a plan to invest in education. We will invest in fee-free TAFE and more university places.
Fee Free TAFE
Hundreds of thousands of Australians will be able to earn a qualification or upskill with Labor’s fee-free TAFE plan. Labor’s 465,000 fee-free TAFE places – including 45,000 new places – will help people find decent jobs and help businesses find employees, by making fee free places available to students studying for industries with skills shortages.
Labor will make sure at least 70% of all public funding for vocational education goes to TAFE to strengthen our public education system. And we’ll deliver $50 million to boost technology on campuses, creating world-leading TAFE training centers.
This will help fix areas of skills shortages and fill future skills needs by training Australians in jobs including engineering, nursing, tech, and teaching.
A stronger university system
An Albanese Labor Government will invest $481.7 million to deliver up to 20,000 extra university places over 2022 and 2023, making it easier for Australians to find a spot at university and get a job.
Under the Morrison Government, it’s getting harder and more expensive to go to uni. The proportion of applicants who get offered a place at university has fallen every year since the Liberal Government slashed university funding in 2017.
Labor will aim to prioritise the new funding for universities which are able to offer additional courses in national priority areas like clean energy, advanced manufacturing, health and education, or where there are skills shortages.
Labor will also establish an Australian Universities Accord to drive lasting reform at our universities. The Accord will help deliver accessibility, affordability, quality, certainty, sustainability and prosperity to the higher education sector and the country.