The Commonwealth’s Fee-Free policy
The Commonwealth introduced a Fee-Free TAFE and vocational education and training (VET) initiative beginning in 2023. It was initially aimed at 180,000 places but was later expanded by 300,000 in mid-2023.1 States and territories determine which programs are ultimately funded, but the policy emphasises selecting VET programs that respond to these national priority areas:
- Agriculture
- Care (including aged care, health care and disability care)
- Construction
- Defence
- Early childhood education and care
- Hospitality and tourism
- Manufacturing
- Sovereign capability
- Technology and digital
- VET workforce from 2024.2
The funding of VET programs in mining and automotive depends on whether states and territories decide to fund them in support of a wider national priority (e.g. manufacturing or sovereign capability).3 From January 2023 to September 2024, over half of all ‘fee-free’ students were enrolled in:
- Agriculture,
- Construction,
- Technology and digital, and
- Care-focused VET programs.
Further, 34% of all ‘fee-free’ enrolments being in care-focused VET programs.4
‘Fee-Free’ policies in states and territories
Figure 1: ‘Fee-free’ and ‘non-fee-free’ commencements compared, Western Australia, 2016-2023
Western Australia
Western Australia previously had the largest number of fee-free qualifications relevant to both mining and automotive of any state. From 2019 to 2023, Western Australia saw commencements increase to 6,612 (+52%) across their nine automotive and ten mining fee-free VET qualifications. At the same time, commencements for a similar subset of nine automotive and ten mining qualifications that were not fee-free fell to 990 (-25%) over this time.5
Queensland
From 2019 to 2023, Queensland’s commencements rose to 6,282 (+161%) for fee-free qualifications relevant to automotive. However, commencements for a subset of fourteen similar automotive VET qualifications that were not fee-free also followed a similar trend and increased to 745 (+167%). Nevertheless, like Western Australia, Queensland's increase in its ‘fee-free’ qualification commencements is noticeable.
Figure 2: ‘Fee-free’ and ‘non-fee-free’ commencements compared, Queensland, 2016-2023
Victoria
Although Victoria introduced their fee-free policy in 2019, its focus for our industries was on three apprenticeship pathway programs (also known as pre-apprenticeships) for prospective automotive workers; commencements for these qualifications fell to 3,350 in 2023 (-17%). At the same time, commencements covering a subset of 3 similar automotive VET qualifications that were not fee-free also fell to 4 (-93%). There is a lack of a clear trend post-implementation of the fee-free policy. Further work would be needed to investigate this and possible mitigating factors.
Conclusion
The analysis highlights the impact of fee-free policies on some automotive and mining VET programs across Australia. Western Australia and Queensland saw notable increases in their fee-free commencements, whereas Victoria was different, with declines in commencements across its fee-free automotive pathway programs.
Appendix 1: Methods
Some states and territories also pursued fee-free policies prior to the Commonwealth. In 2019, Victoria introduced a policy for some fee-free VET programs, followed by broader policies in both Queensland and Western Australia in 2020. These policies preceded the Commonwealth’s and included some automotive and mining VET programs, we opted to analyse them and unpack their potential effects on student uptake. However, rather than assess changes in student enrolments, we have assessed changes in commencements. This is because we cannot isolate these fee-free students and enrolments are progressive, capturing everyone in-study regardless of their original cohort or stage. In contrast, commencements are specific to each cohort and year, allowing for comparisons between when a policy is introduced and possible increases in student uptake thereafter. This approach is consistent with other research on the effects of fee-free policies in VET.6
In order to support our comparisons, we have also used a subset of similar but non-fee-free qualifications for each jurisdiction. A full list of both the fee-free and non-fee-free subset of qualifications for each jurisdiction can be found below.
Table 1: Fee-free and non-fee-free subset of qualifications by jurisdiction
1 A further 20,000 construction-focused places were allotted in the Federal Budget 2024-25, for a total of 500,000 funded places from 2023 to 2026; Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, “Fee-Free TAFE - Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, Australian Government,” 2023.
2 Federal Financial Relations, “Fee-free TAFE skills agreement,” 2024.
4 Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, “Fee-free TAFE enrolment data,” 2024.
5 While exact comparability is not a given and commencements for the fee-free qualifications were higher previously, their rebound above the average (5,610) is notable.
6 Mackenzie Research Institute, “An Initial Look at Fee-Free TAFE,” 2024.