When TAFE and industry work together

Let's look at some of the things being achieved by TAFE as it becomes more attuned to the needs of industrial and commercial clients.

For instance, TAFE NSW's Riverina Institute, with partial funding from the Workplace English Language and Literacy (WELL) Program, recently worked with SunRice to create hundreds of in-house training materials based on the Food Processing Training Package.

Or that students and professionals from various industries can obtain a coveted global Information Technology (IT) qualification – Microsoft Certification, now offered through TAFE NSW's Sydney and Hunter institutes.

These initiatives and others are detailed in the latest TAFELINK, an online newsletter published by TAFE NSW. I'm grateful to Suzanne Fleming for passing it on.

In the previous post, Grumpy Old Tutor mocked Andrew Robb, the new Federal Minister for Vocational and Further Education, after he told The Australian he would reform Australia's TAFEs by sending them out into workplaces. As we pointed out, TAFEs around the nation had carried out those reforms years ago.

You can read TAFELINK here.

In fairness to Robb, we'd also like to point to Robb's speech to the National Press Club in mid-March, where he spelled out his plans for vocational education in Australia. They go a long way beyond the measures described in the next post, which was based on The Australian's report.