Free TAFE program gets green light to expand

THE Federal and State governments have announced they’ll be jointly providing more than sixty-two thousand new free TAFE places in Victoria.

Member for Ballarat, Catherine King, along with State MPs Juliana Addison and Michaela Settle, were at Federation University’s Children’s Centre last Friday to celebrate the announcement.

The free-free TAFE program aims to provide funding to areas where there is a high demand for workers including in the care and construction sectors.

“This is really a celebration of a great partnership between the Commonwealth and the states to really get the workforce that we need for the future,” said Ms King.

“We know we’ve got really big workforce shortages across the country and TAFE plays a significant and critical role in training the workforce of the future.”

So far, the program has seen a high number of enrolments for Diploma of Nursing, Certificate IV in Training and Assessment, and a Diploma of Community Services courses.

Alice Stewart studied a Certificate III in Building and Construction as part of the program and said free TAFE changed her life for the better.

“Having two children at home, I probably wouldn’t have taken such a big risk if it wasn’t free,” she said.

“I had the redundancy payout to pay my essential wage for the little while while I went and did free TAFE and I walked out of it with an education and no debt.”

Ms Stewart is now completing a furniture making apprenticeship and following her passion for furniture restoration.

Emily Littlejohn was able to complete a Certificate III in Early Childhood Education and Care and through her experience is now employed at Federation University’s Children’s Centre.

“I knew this was a great learning resource we had access to, and my own children attended this centre many years ago and loved it here,” she said.

“To be offered employment through my placement was a bit of a pinch me moment really.”