This paper describes changes in the TAFE workforce in Victoria for the 1993-98 period. The analyses show that the TAFE workforce has experienced a number of structural changes. First, there has been an increase in the participation of women. Females have been a majority of the workforce since 1995 and the trends suggest that feminisation of the workforce is likely to increase in the future. Second, the period saw a tremendous growth in part-time employment and a decline in mainly full-time male

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... employment. Most part-time employment is non-tenured, as either fixed-term contract or sessional positions. The period covered in this paper is associated with some quite significant changes in the structure and operations of the VET sector in the State. They range from the amalgamation of 32 TAFE institutes into 19 to attempts at creating a competitive market for the sector in which public and private providers compete for public funds earmarked for the sector. At the same time the demand for training has shifted from the declining manufacturing industries to the service and information technology industries. The analyses of the institute-level staffing profiles suggest the institutes responded differentially to the above changes.