Coallition Tech Colleges ... The Hidden Agenda

John Howard's latest announcement of millions to be spent on new "Australian Technical Colleges" is not new. The original promise was made last election, and the implementation of those has not been plain sailing according to the Labor opposition spokesman ...

Mr McMullan said that figures released on the weekend illustrate the worst features of the Howard Government’s failed strategy in this area of federal/state relations.

Only 21 of the 28 mooted colleges have opened so far, and those that are open are struggling for enrolments. Only 2 of the 21 that are open have met their 2007 target enrolment figures. The budget to run the whole 28 has recently been raised to $552 million and, given the low numbers of enrolments, this equates to nearly $175,000 per student.

Mr McMullan told the meeting, “The Australian Technical Colleges are expensive, inefficient and ineffective. Labor has always been concerned that they merely attempt to duplicate the services already offered by TAFE, but without the networks and the access to apprenticeships that TAFEs have.

I always thought the original proposition was stupid considering the states already run technical colleges. Surely it would have been more sensible just to increase the funding for the existing system?

Of course, the conservatives had another agenda, and that was to negate the Teachers' Union by forcing staff in the new colleges to go on AWAs. True to form, those AWAs have some nasty conditions ....

TEACHERS will be required to submit to blood tests for drugs or alcohol under harsh new industrial contracts that strip away a plethora of conditions.

The tests may be ordered under confidential Australian Workplace Agreements covering staff in the Howard Government's Australian Technical Colleges.

One AWA - seen by The Daily Telegraph - gives a technical college the right to take samples of an employee's blood at any time. It reads: "The Australian Technical College . . . reserves the right to apply any reasonable testing procedures to the employee without notice to detect the presence of alcohol or drugs in the employee's blood."

In the unionised NSW public school system teachers have never been tested for drugs or alcohol.

President of the NSW Teachers' Federation Maree O'Halloran said a proposal for tests would be a "gross infringement of civil liberties".

So the original reason for the implementation of these colleges was a classic Liberal government union bashing exercise, and nothing to do with increasing employment as they've piously claimed this time round.