060923 - ADJOURNMENT - National TAFE Day
Well, it's 10 to eight here in Parliament House tonight, and I just want to send a big shout-out to everyone who might have been at TAFE today or, indeed, who is at TAFE tonight, because today is National TAFE Day. I'm proud to say that, within my electorate of Paterson, we've got three robust, fantastic examples of TAFE, at Maitland, Kurri Kurri and Tomaree, offering vocational and real-world education experiences where TAFE students can attend and prepare themselves for the jobs and the skills that we so desperately need.
Many of those who've taken up the education provided through TAFE at one time or another in their career progression have done so because it offers a diverse and industry-specific training opportunity which can equip people with the skills they need at that time of their life, whether they're just out of school and heading to TAFE or whether they're like many in my electorate who fancy doing an apprenticeship later in life. With more than 25,000 employer connections, TAFE has developed courses with industry partners to equip students with a suite of skills absolutely required for employability.
In my electorate, our Tomaree campus, actually located at Salamander, boasts a Connected Learning Centre. I've just got off the phone with Councillor Leah Anderson, who's also our deputy mayor for Port Stephens Council. I said: 'Leah, just bring me up to date with some of the stuff that they're doing at our Connected Learning Centre.' She said: 'Meryl, it is incredible, the things that they do there.'
There are the skills that are available at Port Stephens, right out on the peninsula—which has a lot of challenges for young people, particularly if you don't have a car or you can't afford the fuel to maybe drive in to TAFE at Tighes Hill or down to Maitland. Well, we've got digital technologies, simulation and virtual learning experiences that give students a cutting edge. In addition to these tools that are used, the campus offers courses in business supports, visitor information services—and if you've been to Port Stephens, you know we get a lot of visitors—and hospitality. Again, we have a massive tourist industry in Port Stephens, so we need many, many people to be trained. It's a very professional vocation these days, and we love the fact that we can train people locally.
The campus at Kurri Kurri is set on 135 hectares of beautiful bushland, right near the heart of the Hunter Valley wine region, offering students the opportunity to study in vocations such as sustainable development, building design, energy and water management. Also, it's the home of the Hunter Valley Hotel Academy, offering practical training in a real-world setting. The academy boasts a conference centre and a large commercial kitchen and often hosts some of the Hunter's biggest events, giving students the opportunity to test their skills and learning in a real-life environment. The Kurri Kurri TAFE campus also offers a fully-equipped commercial kitchen and bakery; a training restaurant bar and cafe; modular conference facilities, featuring videoconferencing and audiovisual equipment; hotel-style accommodation; and reception and concierge desks. They also offer a viticulture course, and, as the parliamentary co-chair of viticulture, I can tell you: their Intuition wines have won numerous awards, including in gold, silver and bronze categories in winemaking, so well done to them. Our Maitland TAFE is also terrific. It was established in 1987. It has a purpose-built plumbing workshop, specialist facilities for building finishing trades, including plastering and painting and decorating, and also provides the MIGAS Apprentices and Trainees Support Centre and building and construction workshops. We have numerous metalwork workshops specialising in training workshops, and there are plenty more courses you can do at Maitland TAFE. You can see that since we have been in government we have announced free- fee-free TAFE, and now we have some 214,000 students enrolled in fee-free courses. This is a Labor government delivering for TAFE to get people jobs.
