Hunter TAFE to cut 30 jobs

Facing increasing cost pressures and declining student numbers in some courses, Hunter TAFE is set to shed more than 30 jobs.

The New South Wales Teachers Federation is blaming State Government belt tightening for the need to cut around 300 TAFE jobs across the State.

Hunter TAFE Institute Director Phil Cox says voluntary redundancies will be offered to teaching staff in education, tourism and hospitality courses.

Mr Cox says the institute is trying to position itself for the competitive training market to be introduced next year.

"We've been looking at a whole lot of different areas across our institute, and over the last few months we've been looking particularly at our tourism, hospitality and training areas," he said.

"We've identified some opportunities to become more efficient in that area, so we're going to consult now and it may potentially may be up to 30 odd positions less in the institute."

Mr Cox says every effort has been made to minimise the impact on employees.

He expects the changes to begin in a matter of weeks.

"We're going to consult with staff over the next several weeks so, in the tourism/hospitality area particularly, we'll hopefully some decisions in the next couple of months," he said.

"But as the Government releases the information about the reforms that occur next year we need to make some changes and plans to help us to be efficient into the future."

Source: ABC News, 6 August 2013