Cookery course provides new career path for Sok

Fee Free TAFE is giving Sok Tsoutouras the chance to develop new skills and prepare for a career change without putting additional strain on the household budget.

An initiative of the state and federal governments, Fee Free TAFE removes the fees for students undertaking much-needed skills training and is helping to address skills shortages in key industry sectors.

A mother of two, Sok, 38, is pursuing her passion for cooking through a Certificate IV in Kitchen Management at TAFE SA’s Regency Campus.

“I enjoy cooking and I’m good at it, so I wanted to give the commercial cookery course a go and I’ve really enjoyed it,” she says.

“Fee Free TAFE has helped immensely because with young children and a mortgage, our funds are somewhat limited, and it would have been hard to prioritise study at this stage.”

Sok worked as a dental nurse prior to having her children, now aged 7 and 9, and says the training at TAFE SA is giving her new skills to re-enter the workforce.

“I’m learning a lot. You think you know how to make something and then you learn how it’s really done and realise your skills are limited,” she says.

“I’ve enjoyed all parts of my course so far and I now appreciate the cost of a restaurant meal – there’s a lot of hard work involved.”

The response from the community to Fee Free TAFE across the state has exceeded expectations and enabled many new students to gain qualifications that would otherwise have been unable to do so.

Through 2023 there have been 241,650 visits to the Fee Free TAFE page on the TAFE SA website.

As part of her training, Sok has been on a work placement at Enoteca on Rundle Street which, she says, her given her great insight into a professional kitchen.

She is looking forward to completing her qualification in 2024 and gaining some industry experience before considering a small business venture of her own.

“A lot of people are surprised by my age and ask me why I’m studying later in life and I say ‘Why not? Fee Free TAFE has given me a great opportunity’,” she says.