Belmont TAFE sale 'likely'

BY MATT JOHNSTON

Shadow Minister for Skills Prue Car says "the hiring of a divestment portfolio manager is just the latest step in the government's agenda to sell or close TAFE campuses across the state".

 The new divestment portfolio, whose manager is on a $180,000 salary, has Belmont and Meadowbank TAFE campuses listed as likely candidates for sale according to leaked government documents. Minister Car says "the communities around those colleges have every right to be concerned about the future of those campuses".

Across New South Wales TAFE enrollments are down 175,000 since 2012, and 5,600 teaching positions have been slashed, according to Ms Car. "What we need to be doing is to be encouraging young people to get back into TAFE colleges, to be learning the skills they need to get good jobs".

"The Hunter is a community that greatly needs TAFE and greatly needs the skills that it teaches our young people... It'll be devastating for regions like the Hunter if we don't stop this trend [of sell-offs and lowered enrollments]."

In other towns like Quirindi and Dapto, where TAFE campuses have already been divested, replacement services are little more than shopfronts with an internet connection. "You cannot learn to be a baker or a carpenter or an electrician via a shopfront with computers. You need a TAFE college with a teacher and real-world experience."

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Newcastle TAFE To Become Training Hub For Future High Tech Industries

BY IAN CROUCH

Newcastle TAFE is gearing up to start training the region's future workforce in automation and robotics.

Courses will be offered in a range of disciplines focusing on the specialist knowledge and skills required to build and maintain the next generation of high-tech automation in the digital and manufacturing sectors.

Head Teacher David Leask says it's not just about replacing the labour force with machines, but giving students new skills which complement existing jobs which will never be replaced by robots.

"We've got artisan industries, we've got industries that will never go away. For example, you will still need the ability to be able to carry a small portable welding unit up scaffolding to be able to carry out a repair on a transmitter antenna bracket for example, and you're not going to be able to get a robot to do that sort of stuff," he said.

David Leask says they've been working closely with the owner a dairy in the Upper Hunter where robots milk the cows.

"His needs are typical of the manufacturing sector right across the Hunter and in fact across the nation. So, it doesn;t really matter to us whether you're manufacturing high level circuit boards or whether you're manufacturing digital data and sending it across the airwaves or whether you're milking cows using robots, the philosophy behind the advanced manufacturing training is to cater for the training needs for the people that are employed in industries that are adopting this technology at all levels," he said.

Newcastle TAFE Head Teacher David Leask