TAFE Talk: Education Quarterly, Issue 6 2023
TAFE is an amazing public asset that changes countless lives for the better and should be celebrated.
To showcase TAFE in 2023, the Australian Education Union and all state and territory branches, including Federation, are conducting a student photography competition.
The theme of the competition is “Life on Campus” and aims to shine a light on the vibrant and dynamic atmosphere, the world-class facilities, and the high-quality vocational education that TAFE provides.
Judges will be looking for outstanding, well-crafted and creative photographs – either natural or staged – that portray the vibrancy of life at TAFE in 2023. Entries close on 9 June.
A winner will be chosen from each state and territory to attend the nationwide final at Parliament House, Canberra on National TAFE Day, 6 September, 2023.
Prizes for the competition include $5000, a trophy and publication in the TAFE Teacher magazine for the overall winner plus $1000 for the national runner-up.
The winner from each state and territory will also receive a prize of $1000 and a trophy as well as travel and accommodation to attend the judging event on National TAFE Day at Parliament House.
The competition is open to currently enrolled TAFE students, with the intent of helping those students generate portfolio content.
TAFE teachers are encouraged to help promote the competition and support students to enter.
Images are to be no more than 10MB, with no more than three photographs per person. A caption of less than 100 words, describing the image and outlining why it speaks to the theme, must be provided for each photograph.
Entries will need to be categorised as “artistic”, with any subject in the photo providing signed release to the photographer, or “journalistic”, which would be a crowd/event or news-style photograph not requiring subject release.
More information and entry submission is available on the Australian Education Union’s website.
Federation members may also email [email protected].
Optics for the sector’s future look brighter
The Australian Education Union’s competition is being held at a time when hopes have been raised for the future of TAFE. For more than a decade, TAFE systems across Australia have been under relentless siege from a combination of federal and state Coalition governments. Their ideological predetermination to force students into the hands of private providers has resulted in a significant decline in the footprint of public TAFE in Australian vocational education. With last year’s change of federal government and changes in multiple state governments, there may now be some light at the end of what’s been a very long tunnel; an opportunity now presents itself to rebuild TAFE across Australia, particularly in NSW.