Hunter business owners are calling on TAFE NSW to revert back to online learning for their apprentices, who are currently required to travel to Sydney to conduct some of their studies.
Hunter New England Health Officials have issued a warning to locals not to travel to the city unless absolutely necessary amid concerns about the further spread of COVID-19.
Branden-Lee Woseen is an apprentice at 'Classic Motorcycle Restoration' in Gateshead, with his course run in a specialized building in Sydney, which not available at the local Hunter TAFE.
During the initial stages of the pandemic he moved to online learning to carry out his studies.
He says on June 24th, TAFE began to return to face to face classes in Ultimo, Sydney, a move Mr Woseen says he understands.
"Online learning wasn't too effective because my course is very hands on, so once it died down we started classes of eight, and now we're back to larger class sizes."
However Mr Woseen says he would now like to see classes move back online, as the number of Covid-19 cases in Sydney begins to rise.
"TAFE said they were monitoring the situation, with the majority the of people in my class from Sydney."
17 new cases of Covid-19 were diagnosed in NSW on Monday, mostly linked to clusters in the city.
Mr Woseen's boss, Graeme Studdert says he required his apprentice to under go a Covid-19 test, and receive a negative result before he was allowed to return to work this week.
"You know I'm in a high risk area, I'm in my 60's and two of my other men, ones 67 and ones 63, we're all taking medication of some sort, so we're potentially in a high risk area and I just don't want to take the chance."
Owner of Brisan's Motorcycles in Islington, Nick Stevens, has 6 or 7 apprentices currently travelling down to Sydney for their studies, and is also calling for a return to online learning.
He says apprentices shouldn't be sent into high risk areas unless absolutely necessary.
"They have been doing some lessons remotely leading up to now and its unprecedented times, I cant see why they cant continue to do the same until we've got the all clear."
"We're certainly not forcing our apprentices to go to TAFE, we're just going to advise them to contact their teachers, and at this stage make their own decisions in terms of whether they'd like to go."
"But from a business stand point we're not really comfortable with them going to Sydney and potentially coming back and infecting other staff."
TAFE NSW is yet to provide a comment.
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| Image Credit: Sydney Morning Herald |
