New funding to support a rapid growth in TAFE enrolments under the Free TAFE initiative was announced in Ballarat on Tuesday.
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Member for Buninyong Michaela Settle met students and staff at the Ballarat FedUni TAFE campus to announce an $11.7 million funding boost to support Free TAFE courses statewide.
Support services to assist students facing disadvantage will be extended through a $6 million boost, including new course materials to help students improve their time management, study skills and literacy, making them more employable.
The state government funding package will also include $5 million to help ensure TAFEs can keep up with enrolment demand and $500,000 to offer teaching scholarships to professionals with industry experience to address staffing vacancies in priority areas.
We work closely with local industry to meet the demand in Ballarat and western Victorian for skilled workers, and free TAFE is helping achieve that.
- Andy Smith, Federation University
More than 25,000 students across Victoria have commenced training in Free TAFE courses in the six months to the end of June.
FedUni TAFE has played a major part in this growth, with more than 700 students commencing Free TAFE, across 23 courses. This is up 143 per cent compared with the same time last year.
FedUni Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) professor Andy Smith said the funding boost would help students have the support they need to gain their qualification and the job they want.
"We work closely with local industry to meet the demand in Ballarat and western Victorian for skilled workers, and free TAFE is helping achieve that," he said.
Female students account for 57 per cent of all Free TAFE students across Victoria, up nine percentage points compared with the same courses at the same time last year.
Female participation is surging in traditionally male-dominated courses such as agriculture, building surveying and cyber security.
Free TAFE courses offered at FedUni TAFE include nursing, community services, plumbing, building and construction, engineering studies, horticulture, commercial cookery, agriculture and cyber security.
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