AEU says training grants don't go far enough

The Australian Education Union (AEU) says the Victorian Government's new food, tourism and hospitality training grants do not make up for its cuts to TAFE.

The Government has announced $800,000 will be spent on a project to train 180 regional Victorians in food, tourism and hospitality.

The program allows regional students to train for Melbourne-based William Angliss courses at GippsTAFE, and TAFEs in Mildura and Warrnambool.

The AEU's Jeff Gray says it is a good idea but does not go far enough.

"We know that a lot of courses in hospitality, in particular, suffered significantly, so it has been made certainly a lot harder for regional Victorians to access a number of these courses and I guess some of them are just lost to the system unfortunately," he said.

Mr Gray says the closure of Advance TAFE's Cafe Rossi in Sale this year was just one casualty of the cuts.

"The AEU would certainly support any investment in training for regional Victorians, so it is a positive but it does come on the back of the huge cuts the State Government has made to TAFE in the last couple of years, so it needs to be kept in context," he said.

"I'd say it is a bit of a drop in the bucket but it is a positive."

Source: ABC News, 18 July 2013