Campuses and buildings across Victoria will be upgraded and more Free TAFE courses offered thanks to the Victorian Budget 2019/20, helping Victorians get the skills they need for the jobs they want.
As the Big Build rolls out across our state, our road and rail projects need apprentices, our new and upgraded hospitals need more highly-trained nurses, and our kinders need more early childhood educators.
Over the past four years, the Andrews Labor Government has saved TAFE and now it’s time to make it even better. That’s why the Budget includes $5.6 million to develop the next stage of targeted training for our next generation of construction and social services workers.
The Big Build and Victoria Cares higher apprenticeships will be developed in partnership with industry and the tertiary education sector and allow apprentices to ‘earn while they learn’, doing on-the-job training while achieving higher qualification levels, such as vocational advanced diplomas and degrees.
The Budget also delivers $231 million for TAFE and training, including $57 million to upgrade and rebuild TAFE facilities and campuses across the state, and $82.7 million for training places at TAFEs, Learn Locals and private training organisations.
We know that apprentices who get through their first year of training are more likely to go on to have long-lasting careers – that's why this Budget invests $4.7 million in Apprenticeship Support Officers at TAFEs across Victoria to help apprentices through that vital first year on the tools.
Building on the success of Free TAFE, which has seen enrolments more than double in priority courses across Victoria in 2019, $28.5 million will be invested to train the workforce needed to deliver universal three-year-old kinder.
The Diploma and Certificate III of Early Childhood Education and Care will be added to the Free TAFE list from 2020, which is vital as the Labor Government delivers three-year-old kinder across Victoria .
Delivering on our promises in regional Victoria, work will soon begin on a new $23.5 million culinary school at Geelong’s Gordon Institute and a $20 million library and learning hub at South West TAFE Warrnambool, jointly funded with Warrnambool City Council, while GOTAFE will receive $2.5 million to build a health training facility in Seymour.
A $10.2 million Integrated Centre for Sustainable Construction Technologies will be established at Box Hill Institute, while Melbourne Polytechnic and Chisholm Institute will share in $500,000 to plan and design upgrades for their Collingwood and Frankston campuses.
To support Victoria’s growing agriculture industry, $7.2 million will be invested to upgrade facilities at agricultural colleges and to provide additional training in shearing at more sites across the state – the biggest boost to shearing in a generation.
Quotes attributable to Minister for Training and Skills and Higher Education Gayle Tierney
“In our first term we saved TAFE, now we want to make it better than ever before.”
“Higher apprenticeships in construction and social services will support people get the skills they need for thousands of jobs in Victoria’s major infrastructure projects and across other sectors like aged care, disability services and mental health.”
“Not only are we making more TAFE courses free, we’re upgrading and transforming TAFE campuses across Victoria – just as we said we would.”
Reviewed 19 August 2020