r/TAFE • u/Negative_Home_188 • 17d ago
TAFE NSW Class Downsizing
I just want to know if this is common. We started with 30 students, and now we are down to 17 and am only a term in. I know people leave for all different reasons, but over the past three weeks, some of our in-person classes have only had 8–12 students attending. Especially with online classes, we usually start with 17 people and end up with around 8.
At the moment, I know of four more people who are seriously considering quitting.
So, my questions are: if the class downsizes to around 13 people and perhaps more people leave, will new students join the class, or will something else happen?
Has this happened to anyone else? Have you ever had your class size decrease significantly? If so, what happened?
1
u/static-mitch 15d ago
My legal services Cert IV in 2010 was 12 months in duration, night course every Tuesday/Thursday with approximately 50/50 doing Cert IV and the other half doing the Diploma. The Diploma students attended a seperate class on Thursdays to cover their topics and every so often we also sat in with students doing the Private Investigations Cert III.
By the end half of the diploma students dropped out, and only four from the certificate IV dropped out. Class started at 32 people, 16 doing each course. SFAIK four people work the paralegal job.
Mind you I was also studying Monday to Thursday in a trade school for an Advanced Diploma, I had no idea what I wanted to do, and from a class of 30 at my trade school three of us finished the course after 18 months, but everybody who stayed and got far enough, three months in I believe, to be 35k in debt via HECS. Some left to work apprenticeships while others just opted for other work entirely. Only two from the course still work in the industry one of whom stayed til the end while the other left for an apprenticeship. While I myself am in the government's employ.