GOVERNMENT funding to help job seekers and school leavers learn new skills should be allocated mostly to TAFE to prevent private providers rorting the system, according to the union.
The federal government's $2 billion JobTrainer skills package includes $500 million - to be matched by state and territory government contributions - to help people access short and long courses to develop new skills in growth areas and create a pathway to more qualifications.
NSW Teacher's Federation TAFE NSW Hunter representative Annette Bennett said the union welcomed the injection of funding into vocational education and training.
"It's long overdue," Ms Bennett said.
"The government is playing catch up. It's stripped $3 billion from VET since they came into power in 2013 and there are 140,000 fewer apprenticeships since then. It's good they're listening now, but they're really playing catch up."
But, she said, "the majority of funding should go to TAFE, not to profit-driven registered training organisations".
She said "we've seen time and time again" private providers rorting the system.
"It's very hard to regulate, the amount of money spent in policing this sort of thing could be invested back into TAFE."
A Department of Education, Skills and Employment spokeswoman said all governments will "work in partnership to ensure effective controls are in place".
The federal government will monitor the rollout alongside states and territories, which will continue to be responsible for selecting, contracting and vetting providers.
Ms Bennett said TAFE was trusted, "best placed to lead this skills recovery" and had infrastructure, teacher expertise, relationships with industry and a proven 130 year track record.
"Why reinvent the wheel?"
Newcastle MP Tim Crakanthorp agreed.
"If there's one institution that should be receiving the lion's share of this funding it is TAFE," he said.
"Cut after cut after cut has ripped the guts out of TAFE and left it as a shadow of its former fantastic self.
"The government needs to embrace this opportunity to rebuild what has been destroyed and resource the teachers and students appropriately so TAFE can once again become the world-class institution it used to be."
The spokesperson said funding will be available for "nationally accredited qualifications and skill sets in areas of identified and genuine skills needs, based on a list agreed between the National Skills Commission and the state and territory governments".
States and territories will then determine priorities from the list.
The package also includes $1.5 billion to expand an existing wage incentive, Supporting Apprentices and Trainees.
The incentive will now be available to medium businesses for apprentices employed on July 1.
The program covers 50 per cent of wages, up to $7000 per quarter, until March.
Ms Bennett said this was a good idea, but didn't support those yet to find a job.
"There needs to be some out of the box thinking into getting these potential apprentices to take on an apprenticeship rather than a university course."
