Governments are interested in the relative efficiency of institutions, and in addition, information on efficiency can be used by individual institutions to benchmark themselves against their peers. The main factor that was found to affect efficiency, as defined in this paper, was degree of remoteness. Further, institute size is an important factor, with smaller institutes tending to be less efficient. This paper employs a mathematical technique known as Data Envelopment Analysis to examine the efficiency of TAFE institutes.
This paper was presented at the 2009 Economic and Social Outlook Conference, 5-6 November at the University of Melbourne. It takes a sceptical view of the push for 'green skills', arguing that skills required in the labour market evolve relatively slowly, and that the way business operates is driven by changing costs, new technologies and new regulations, with sustainability being only one of many factors.