THE State Government’s announcement of new free TAFE courses could help meet regional job demand, SuniTAFE chief executive Brett Millington says
The four new courses across hospitality, youth work and tourism are part of more than 80 TAFE qualifications and short courses made available through the free TAFE initiative introduced in 2019.
More than 156,000 students have made use of these free courses with a quarter based in regional Victoria.
Mr Millington said a number of the free courses were available locally.
“We already deliver a few of those courses that are under those newly added free TAFE courses and if the demand is there that gives us the opportunity to develop our syllabus and perhaps deliver some of the additional ones,” he said.
“We deliver several of the hospitality courses so if people are interested, they should get in contact and explore those options.”
Mr Millington said he was pleased to see more free courses becoming available.
“We always welcome the opportunity for free vocational education and training, it helps to deliver the skills that we need in our community, and it also reflects where the demand might be in terms of jobs going forward,” he said.
“There has been significant demand for free courses particularly in our nursing area where a number of people are taking up the opportunity to get on the free course list.
“There is a long and varied list of skills we need in the community, certainly in community support and services, nursing, aged care and early childhood.”
Mr Millington said they would look to add more courses if the demand was there.
“There are a couple of different elements that go into introducing new courses, some of it is about projections that the Victorian Skill Authority identify, if they say there is a demand for these jobs in the region then we try to align what we are delivering against that.
“Like every business we need to find qualified people to deliver that, so we need to have a teacher that has the skill set to deliver that.”
Free TAFE courses are available to all Victorians, regardless of their existing qualification level, and it’s also possible to do more than one free TAFE course provided it’s within the same priority pathway.
“There is a number of young people who finished Year 12 who may not know where they want to head and the skills and job centre is here to help you understand what jobs are available and if you don’t have the skill set, what courses might be available to help you get that.”
