The Canberra Institute of Technology will begin a voluntary redundancy program in a bid to bring the organisation back to financial sustainability.
The CIT has opened an expression of interest process for voluntary redundancies for eligible permanent staff.
CIT will offer voluntary redundancies to staff. Picture by Keegan Carroll
It is not know how many staff will be made redundant or how much money the program is intended to save.
CPSU regional secretary Maddy Northam said the union was “deeply disturbed” by the news of redundancies at CIT and called on Chief Minister Andrew Barr to intervene.
“The ACT government should be investing in our public vocational education system, not slashing jobs,” Ms Northam said.
“Canberrans should feel confident that we have a well-resourced CIT. But with a brand-new campus in Woden, the government needs to tell us if there will be enough staff and students to fill it.”
Australian Education Union ACT president Angela Burroughs said CIT teacher members have been concerned about a growing proportion of staff who were doing administrative tasks rather than frontline teaching work.
“Our members have been saying for a couple of years now that the staffing profile of CIT is getting completely out of balance,” Ms Burroughs said.
“And so in some ways, if this is an opportunity to rebalance that staffing profile so that CIT can focus on ensuring the provision of excellent quality vocational education and training for students and for the ACT community, I think they will embrace that. But it’s just yet another twist in the roller coaster life of what it is to be employed at CIT at the moment.”
Independent MLA Thomas Emerson said the redundancies should not target the CIT teaching workforce which declined by 68 positions over the past decade while 58 additional senior and executive level managers were employed over that time period.
“It’s unclear how some of the decisions CIT has made over the last decade align with its core mission of providing high-quality training and education opportunities for Canberrans,” Mr Emerson said.
“CIT needs to refocus its expenditure on successful program delivery, rebuilding the institute’s reputation and improving completion rates.”
No compulsory job losses
CIT staff were told that no decision have been made about the future organisational structure.
“This process is entirely voluntary and expressions of interest will be considered against CIT’s operational and educational requirements,” a CIT spokesperson said.
“No staff member will be required to apply, and nobody will be made compulsorily redundant through this program.”
The institute has started consultation with staff and unions.
The CIT Board has a responsibility to students, staff, industry partners and ACT taxpayers to ensure the organisation remains sustainable and well positioned to meet future education and workforce needs,” the spokesperson said.
“The Sustainable Workforce Program is intended to support that long-term objective while maintaining CIT’s focus on the delivery of quality education and training, delivering on the CIT ten-year strategic plan.”
The CIT has been facing declining enrolments and failed to meet financial targets outlined in its annual report.
CIT posted an operating deficit of $28.3 million in 2025, which was $17.3 million worse than expected.
The annual report noted the “urgent need to review the operating model and profile planning activities to work towards restoring financial sustainability.”
CIT missed its subject enrolment target by 11 per cent in 2025. Subject enrolments dropped by 28 per cent in the past five years from 111,464 in 2021 to 80,187 in 2025.
The CIT annual report attributed the decline in enrolments to flow-on effects of COVID-19 and a strong local employment market reducing the demand for training.
First published in The Canberra Times on August 3 2026 as ‘CPSU ‘deeply disturbed’ by job cuts at CIT by Sarah Lansdown
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Image credits: Keegan Carroll
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