0 to 61 – comment by CEO Craig Robertson

I had the privilege prior to Easter to visit two TAFE campuses in Victoria, both back into full swing for the new year.

The new building in Frankston as part of Chisholm Institute is testament to the importance of place in a community. Some 41 kilometres South of Melbourne as the gateway to the Mornington Peninsula, it could be easy to overlook the significance of the investment. A short walk from the train station within the city precinct, the campus brings vocational education for trades and services and signifies the importance of education and training to the community.

The flow of students into the campus and their passage to work or further post-school education is one measure of the value of the campus, but just one. We all too easily count enrolments and completions against subsidy rates as one measure of success – efficiency. It is often a struggle with measures beyond that – like economic value to industry in the region and the value of place for the community.

Steve Varty, CEO Chisholm Institute and Craig Robertson

The economic value can be employment outcomes and the capacity for the population to work locally. In terms of place, measuring the focal point of the campus for the local business community, including the Frankston city council is less direct. But evidence is there – because it is there – in place! Critically, the presence in the community – physically and through Chisholm staff – signals to families the importance and opportunity offered through post-school education and training. Far more than a website.

Value to the community is also tangible at SuniTAFE on the banks of the Murray in Mildura. Serving a thriving region – there’s a two-year wait for building houses – Suni sits as a key agent in that growth.

Central is its service to the agriculture industry expressed through its Smart Farm. No ordinary farm. Suni is bringing automation and digitisation to agribusiness, ranging from an integrated planting and harvesting system that can use the one piece of equipment for harvesting of fruits, almonds and olives to an agriculture robot that can manage full crop cycles from planting, weeding, watering and harvesting. (It is currently being guided over the farm to survey the full landscape from which it will then be self-guided and self-managed).

The SuniTAFE Agri Robot

Already local farmers are planning their future with a sense of confidence having seen the smart farm in operation. This is also difficult to measure in the standard metrics of VET, however the results are tangible for local industry and community members. The next challenge for Suni is to develop new accredited courses to support the roll-out of automation to the industry.

More mainstream has been the growth in the heavy auto trades. With its Swan Hill campus already known throughout the region for the quality of its heavy auto trades training, Suni took the bold step of setting up the same program in Mildura. The result? Zero to 61 apprentices in just twelve-months (without compromising numbers in Swan Hill)!

Left to right, Peter McLean, Will Sharpe and Geoff Dea at SuniTAFE, Mildura

There is lots of narrative in VET about improving the role industry plays, however, that is often a concern from the centre. Chisholm and Suni bring a local expression to industry engagement – the place where vocational education, industry and students come together. And it is developing industry with industry, empowered by contemporary skills.

The place of education and training through any TAFE campus is an expression of the commitment of governments to the place of education and training in our modern life. In the task Australia faces in building new industry and rebuilding those that have faltered through COVID, TAFE is the point of access for individuals, industry and for communities.

This is the dividend from TAFE – across Australia – for Australia.