Jobseekers are Betrayed by Fee-Paying Education
Perhaps you have a degree already. Perhaps you don’t. But either way, you - as an unemployed person possibly don’t have a set of qualifications that employers want to reward with employment.
So what are your options? In Australia, right now, there are a few “free” education options available to you:
Your Workforce Australia/DES provider and what they’re willing to fund for short courses. Most of these courses are going to be delivered by the registered training organisation arm of that provider, and will be a waste of your time unless you’ve never worked a day in your life. We know that’s not the case for the majority of unemployed people. Most of their content will be downright insulting to your intelligence, and your prior work experience.
The Federal Government has decided to fund a number of TAFE courses in a number of disciplines, which the ALP tells us employers are indicating shortfalls in qualified employees. Based on TAFE SA’s free list:
Most of these are in the construction and building trades (carpentry, air conditioning, architectural drafting, construction, plumbing, carpentry, etc) ranging from Cert IIs to Diplomas.
There’s a free Cert III available in Civil Construction Plant Operations (again - seems construction related).
There’s a free Cert III available in Landscaping for construction projects.
There is a single free course in cookery (short course, no accreditation).
There’s 4 courses which are part of either a Diploma of Vocational Education and Training, or a Certificate IV in training and assessment.
Other than the the training/vocational education courses, none of these courses are suitable for people with disabilities or health conditions that would restrict them to light duties. This is around half of the cohort of unemployed people, and over 80% of long-term unemployment.
If your interest is in some kind of University-level undergraduate course, the Australian Labor Party has continued the Liberal/National Party coalition’s tiered fee scheme based on the course category as follows.
Source: https://uac.edu.au
For TAFE training, the cost varies wildly but will often be somewhere between $4000/ full time equivalent (FTE) year and $7000/FTE Year.
While University and VET Fee-Help programs can mitigate the up-front cost of these programs, there are additional expenses that come with study that also make this a difficult choice for jobless people. To commit to what might amount to over $50,000 of debt for a 3 year business-focused or humanities degree is a big decision, especially when your education may actually not be your barrier to employment.
The Ratchet
Prior to the LNP’s decision to shake up this system, almost all degrees were in the same ballpark of where the degrees in high industrial demand (the $4627 tier) are currently pegged. This was an awful decision at the time, but the ALP’s decision to persist with this wildly inequitable approach feeds into the same fascist intolerance for a population capable of critical analysis of public policy.
But as usual in duopoly political systems, this is “the ratchet” working as designed. The capitalists who have bought themselves a seat at the public policy table with both duopoly parties - some might even call them partners in terms of the number of bills passed without significant complaint by the “opposition party” - always seem to be able to push one party or the other further to the right. And once their desired changes are in place, neither party ever seems to show any interest in reversing them.
To be clear, when we’re talking about the pricing of education, and the intolerance for dissent, this absolutely extends to the workplace. Whether it’s the gaslighting of the jobless in capitalist-created “job readiness courses,” or the punitive cost of degrees in fields which might equip workers with the ability to assert their workplace right or organise dissent in the workplace, capitalism is best served when people are skilled only for the role they have and kept both ignorant and compliant otherwise.
Of course, a political cynic would also be able to look at the history of the ALP and point to the Salazarian/Santamarian corporatism of the dominant ALP right’s so-called “reformist” approach, which ultimately finds its expression in the national interest envisioned by the nation’s “elites” (AKA billionaires). Those who support that ideology can only envision the lie of neoliberal trickle-not economics, and in doing so betray not only the spirit of unionism, but all workers.
What YOU Can Do About It
Ultimately, the best solution to the duopoly’s ratchet and the program of corporate Australia and the mass share-/property-owning class is to disempower the duopoly players and corporations. You can do that by:
Voting down-ticket for the ALP over the LNP in order to send them a clear message that their corporatist agenda no longer flies. If some Greens and independents get elected along the way, forcing the ALP into minority government and the LNP and loony right (PHON, Trumpet for Australia, the Pentacostal Movement’s Family First Party, the Liberal Democrats) into electoral irrelevance, one might hope that the ALP could be forced to accept progressive compromises that might be more pro-worker, and undo some of the damage that the ratchet has done.
In the Senate, if you vote above the line, put the ALP at number 10 and exhaust the ballot. If you vote below the line, vote for as many actually progressive parties and candidates as you can and put the ALP marginally above the LNP and their political allies.
Boycott the products of the large companies that regularly top the nation’s highest political donations. Banks, mining companies, gambling companies, supermarkets and literal billionaires, such as Anthony Pratt, Gina Rinehart and Andrew Forrest. Of course, we only get to see the tip of the political donation iceberg, because Australia has long maintained laws which allow large foundations to donate to both the ALP and LNP, or to pay for advertising and personnel on their behalf. This dark money is still not required to be disclosed and probably never will while the duopoly remains in power.
Shop with locally owned stores, where it’s financially/logistically viable to do so. Directing your financial support for companies who buy political influence to protect their awful business practices, labour abuses and terrible environmental practices from inspection and correction is like paying for a whip on your own back. The union movement’s catch-cry is a harm to one is a harm to all. The AUWU is a union and we care about what happens to workers.
Understand the impact of the ALP’s lack of action on people whose situations have led them to a set of circumstances where employers simply aren’t interested in employing them. Government jobs require 7-20 page applications these days, assuming you even have the required clearances to be able to apply. In many cases, those clearances cost money that unemployed people simply don’t have. For private sector jobs, any disability or need for part time work conditions is met with a more-or-less automatic no. And even if you’re not disabled, if you don’t have the exact skillset and employer is looking for (no less, and absolutely not more, as employers don’t want the job they’re hiring for to be an entry way into a career), forget about it. Clothing for interviews, public transport or vehicle maintenance/fuel costs are prohibitive for jobseekers who are dependent on Federal Government benefits, especially when the cost of groceries continues to spiral out of control, and housing/utility costs keep on rising at or above CPI.
Speak to people at the electorate offices of your representatives. Tell them explicitly why the candidates they support will not be getting your first preference in the upcoming election. Hammer home the fact that voters see through the gaslighting, and they need to make significant actual changes to the living conditions of people in poverty. Demand the immediate and permanent cessation of mutual obligations. Tell them the best form of welfare is income above the poverty line, not a job, not a one-off hand-out, not a course where you can be gaslit about the obligations of workers to their future employers.
Want To Do More?
The Australian Unemployed Workers Union is always looking for volunteers who can help out with campaigning, with individual advocacy assistance, with administrative tasks and organising friends, family and other acquaintances to participate in activities like protests, pickets of particularly wretched WFA/DES providers, town halls and social gatherings to build familiarity with other organisers, and to build local solidarity.
We also need your stories about your encounters with the for-profit providers and government departments in Australia’s now fully industrialised welfare system. Have you faced suspensions? Demerits? Been told off by a provider or government official? If so, we want to hear from you, even if the matter has since been resolved.
Finally, while we do our best to operate on as low a cost basis as possible, we do have some IT platform and administration costs which are unavoidable, and we do our best to ensure that people don’t go out of pocket when taking a leading role in union or broader scale events. We gratefully accept donations to help defray our operating costs.
For volunteering, feel free to contact us at secretary@auwu.org.au with information on the kinds of activities you want to help out with and we’ll direct your inquiry to the right person. For reporting interactions with providers and government, and for donations, please use the relevant forms on our website https://www.auwu.org.au/.