There are calls for urgent government intervention to stop the critical decline of the TAFE system, which is leaving thousands of young people with little opportunity for training and jobs.

Key points: Vocational training expert warns "we can either save TAFE or we'll lose it"

Vocational training expert warns "we can either save TAFE or we'll lose it" State governments deny TAFE is in decline, defending moves to subsidise courses in areas of skills shortage

State governments deny TAFE is in decline, defending moves to subsidise courses in areas of skills shortage The Federal Government has announced a $1.5-billion fund to address the decline in apprenticeships, but TAFE has been hurt by successive cuts

Courses have been cut, campuses have been closed and enrolments are down 25 per cent in the past five years.

International vocational training expert Leesa Wheelahan, an Australian who now holds a professorship at the University of Toronto, warned the sector was on the brink of collapse.

"We're at a tipping point right. We can either save TAFE or we'll lose it," she said.

"We've got to move back from the disastrous policies of the last 10 years and start reinvesting in TAFE as the key anchor institutions of communities and regions."

The proportion of vocational students being educated at TAFE has declined sharply in the past decade.

In 2009, TAFE taught 81 per cent of publicly funded students, and by 2015 that share had declined to 50 per cent.

TAFE's market share of publicly funded students dropped to as low as 34 per cent in Victoria.

In contrast, private providers taught only 15 per cent of publicly funded vocational students in 2009, and that had risen to 46 per cent by 2015.

The Federal Government has now moved to roll back the flow of public loans to private colleges, but the public TAFE system looks unlikely to return to the dominant public institution it once was.

State governments have strongly denied TAFE is in decline and have defended moves to heavily subsidise courses in areas of skills shortage.

With reduced funds available from the Commonwealth, they said they were unable to justify running expensive courses that experience low enrolments.

Boat builder Joe de Kock knows how hard it is to find good tradespeople.

"The universities are churning out lawyers and accountants and everything else, and the tradesmen — I don't see where they're coming from," said the shipwright from Newcastle, north of Sydney.

He has taken on Tyrone Bliim as an apprentice, but said becoming a shipwright was not as easy as it once was.

Apprentice shipwrights used to be trained at the local TAFE, but cuts a few years ago mean Tyrone must make a five-hour round trip to Sydney for his classes.

"It's $20 to get down there and back so, especially on apprentice wages, that's a lot of money," he said.

Boatbuilder Joe de Kock took on Tyrone Bliim as his apprentice. ( ABC News: Natasha Robinson )

TAFE hurt by successive budget cuts

New South Wales lost 35 per cent of its TAFE workforce between 2010 and 2016.

Victoria's TAFE workforce declined 44 per cent, Queensland's by 25 per cent and South Australia lost 17 per cent of its TAFE workforce in recent years.

Protests against TAFE funding cuts and job losses over recent years have been regular and impassioned since vocational training was opened to private competition in 2012 under the Federal Labor government.

"Private providers have mushroomed, have grown exponentially, have made monstrous profits, and have colonised areas that can be taught very cheaply," Dr Wheelahan said.

"So they've cherry-picked the areas where it's cheapest to teach, leaving TAFE to teach the most expensive areas."

The flow of Commonwealth loans to private colleges triggered unscrupulous profiteering, fraud, and corruption in the sector as almost $6 billion flowed into the private market.

The Federal Government has now wound back public loans to private colleges.

This year it announced a $1.5-billion fund to address the decline in apprenticeships aimed at creating 300,000 extra skilled workers.

But TAFE has been hurt by successive yearly budget cuts of hundreds of millions of dollars.

"That had a massive effect on all parts of TAFE delivery," said Andrew Williamson from the Victorian TAFE Association.

The Australian Education Union held a conference on the future of TAFE on Friday, which heard the sector-wide cuts had greatly reduced trust in the TAFE system.

"There is a crisis by any measure in the system," said Australian Education Union Federal TAFE secretary Pat Forward.

"It is a serious crisis and frankly it is an existential crisis. Unless there are serious attempts now to address what is happening, the system will not continue in its present form."

TAFE NSW has "sharpened its focus on areas of greatest need", boosting enrolments of some trades. ( ABC News: Natasha Robinson )

NSW TAFE 'sharpens focus', Victoria launches ad campaign

A spokesman for NSW TAFE denied the system was on the brink of collapse but said it had been forced to sharpen its focus to areas of greatest need like carpentry and plumbing courses.

"TAFE NSW is strong," a spokesperson said.

"It's well known that changes to student loans by the Federal Government led to a sector-wide reduction in enrolments.

"As a result of these changes, TAFE NSW sharpened its focus on areas of the greatest need.

"As a result of these efforts, chippies are up, plumbers are up, builders are up, as are enrolments in a number of other critical areas."

Meanwhile, Victoria TAFE has launched a slick new advertising campaign to rebuild its image.

The ad features 25-year-old Melinda Jeffery, who completed a four-year apprenticeship as a machinist in Melbourne.

"I've got a qualification, I've got a full-time job and I've been able to purchase a house," she said.

"Looking at my peers' situation, a lot of them have gone down the university pathway and they're finding it difficult to get a job without the prior experience."