TAFE campus to stay
Difficult decisions: GippsTAFE general manager teaching and learning Carol Elliot and Leongatha campus manager Stuart Cooper address the issue of state funding cuts.
GIPPSTAFE executives are confident the Leongatha campus will remain open and viable.
But they can’t yet give a cast iron guarantee.
This is because the full picture won’t be known until a re-jigging of courses is tested in the market place.
The saving grace for the campus could be its new, five-star energy rated building packed with up-to-the-mark information technology.
Current students are guaranteed their classes will continue until the end of this calendar year.
The institute has announced 32 redundancies out of a staff of 400.
Eleven of those 32 were told last Thursday they no longer had jobs. One of those was employed at Leongatha.
GippsTAFE has been in turmoil since the State Government announced major cuts to the entire TAFE sector in the May State Budget.
GippsTAFE’s general manager teaching and learning Carol Elliot is spending the next month at the Leongatha campus, dealing with what she described as a “slices” approach to funding cuts.
“We are looking to expand courses and we are intending to ensure GippsTAFE is here in Leongatha into the future.”
But she cannot see a time when the impact will finish.
“That’s the tragedy.”
The certainty of the Leongatha campus will depend on how many students take up what’s offered.
Campus manager Stuart Cooper said diploma and advanced diploma courses have been a big part of the Leongatha campus market, with students from across Victoria attracted by on-line offerings. But state funding for these has been more than halved and a concession for eligible students aged under 25 scrapped. This means diploma and advanced diploma fees will now cost around $3000 a year.
Neither Mr Cooper nor Ms Elliot have seen an enthusiastic student response to a Federal Government HECS-style loan scheme for TAFE students.
Ms Elliot said the cuts to diploma and advanced diploma and advanced diploma funding have hit hard because they contradict state skills reform policy encouraging people to gain such qualifications.
She doesn’t think any TAFEs in Victoria will be offering hospitality courses. GippsTAFE certainly won’t. The government has taken a dim view of their usefulness and slashed subsidies to the quick.
Retail and business administration courses are similarly regarded.
Mr Cooper chairs the South Gippsland and Bass Coast Local Learning Employment Network and the loss of those courses locally worries him.
But there is hope for GippsTAFE Leongatha’s Wildflower Restaurant. Apprentices – now favoured by the state – will run the kitchen and Mr Cooper is hoping secondary school Vocational Education and Training (VET) students will undertake the front-of-house work. Hairdressing and cookery apprentice classes remain strong.
“Having the kitchen and salon is a godsend,” Mr Cooper observed.
The campus will also tap into the growing aged care market by offering more courses. Its new building, opened last year, includes a four-bed “hospital”.
And a new course in animal studies that has drawn wide appeal at the Warragul campus will be offered in Leongatha. Certificate IV in tourism will also be available.
“We’re looking to be creative in the way we manage,” Ms Elliot said.
She draws comfort knowing Leongatha has been named by Higher Education and Skills Minister Peter Hall as a “technology enabled learning centre” under the Gippsland Tertiary Education Plan. The TAFE campus is well set up to host that.
Asked about morale within both the Leongatha and the wider GippsTAFE community, Ms Elliot replied, “I’m very proud of everybody. Campus managers have been magnificent in grappling with the issues and staff have been amazing. They know this is a government-inflicted regime.”
Short URL: /?p=3791
Posted by 
