It has been said that change is the only constant in life, but the rate of change seems to have gone into overdrive over the last few years. For large vocational training organisation TAFE Western Sydney, this is evident through new projects which have taken training out of colleges and onto pop-up style training facilities on worksites.
Such projects see the TAFE Institute partnering with organisations to achieve specific outcomes based upon the needs of an organisation and also fulfilling social objectives. The Barangaroo Skills Exchange is one such example where specific targets were set. In just a few years more than 7,000 workers, many of whom would never have stepped into a TAFE college, have completed training onsite. A celebration for the enrolment of the 500th apprentice and the 50th Indigenous apprentice onsite was held in late June.
TAFE Western Sydney has also been identified as the prime training provider for a major infrastructure project - Australia’s biggest public transport project, and is looking into how the pop-up college model can be used for other major projects.
“What was only a few years considered innovative is now commonplace so our challenge is to keep adapting. We are finding now that we need to step outside and take our training into the marketplace,” said Robin Shreeve, Institute Director.
“We are always open to conversation with businesses and government organisations to explore more ways of skilling up workers.”
Business case study documents have recently been released by TAFE Western Sydney. Call (02) 9208 9421 for details.
