Education emerges as a driving force in Victoria’s East.

17 August 2009

Educational innovation has emerged as a driving force in Victoria’s East, with education becoming both an important industry sector and one of the pillars of the region’s current and future prosperity.

With over 30 primary schools, 12 secondary schools, a strong TAFE sector, tertiary courses, a growing community education hub and a range of specialist education and training facilities linked to industry and trades training, education is East Gippsland’s fourth largest industry sector, and a sector that continues to grow.

As an industry the Education sector generates over $125 million per annum for the regional economy (2006 figure). Education is also a regional export for Victoria’s East with almost half of East Gippsland TAFE’s commercial income coming from outside the region. “We deliver a range of specialist courses throughout Victoria and Australia through a range of delivery modes including on line and face to face training to students from places as far flung as Darwin, Perth and FNQ, as well as delivering a full range of training courses for the local community.” explained East Gippsland TAFE CEO Angela Hutson.

The educational focus in Victoria’s East is one driven primarily by a commitment to educational excellence and a desire to build sustainable, resilient communities. “This is a region that understands that its future relies on innovation, lifestyle and seizing new opportunities. Underpinning this is the need for a solid educational foundation that sets our children up for a bright future and allows residents to extend their skills, retrain and follow new career paths whilst still living in this beautiful un-spoilt environment that is a feature of Victoria’s East” said local MP Craig Ingram Member for Gippsland East.

For many years the region has cosseted partnerships with universities and industry across Australia that has led to the creation of specialist facilities such as SEAMEC in Lakes Entrance, that provides maritime and aquaculture training and is a marine research facility co located with RMIT University. “Lakes Entrance is home to one of Australia’s largest commercial fishing fleets, with SEAMEC providing much of the training to ensure that the industry keeps abreast with new technology and techniques and new employees are suitably skilled to enter the industry and then grow their career within the maritime industry” Ms Hutson stated.

Other specialist training includes Forestech the Living Resources Centre that provides training for the timber industry and also delivers training in conservation and land management and furniture design. Additionally, Farmtech is a working farm campus that offers training in agriculture, horticulture and also has state of the art irrigation systems which allows the agri-industry to see firsthand how the different irrigation systems perform.

Residents of Victoria’s East also have access to leading Trades Training through the Bairnsdale and Sale Trade Training Centres and G-TEC. G-TEC – Gippsland’s Technical College is dedicated to supporting young people in Years 11 and 12 with starting their apprenticeship with an employer as well as completing their VCAL or VCE, which is supporting Victoria’s East’s growing economy and demand for building and construction plus many other trades required across the region..
Victoria’s East also has one of the best models for community service training and work-force re-entry training, with a community college hub that supports approximately 1,500 students. Not only does the community college specialize in community training, it also houses a local University of the Third Age and myriad of other community based services and not for profit organizations offering experiential learning.

But this is not a region resting on its laurels as a spate of recent announcements attest. Victoria’s East is busily planning for a bright educational future with a strong focus on new facilities, partnerships, delivery mechanisms, specializations and seamless educational pathways for the region’s students.

Perhaps key amongst these announcements is commitments made by both State and Federal governments to the Bairnsdale Integrated Education Precinct. The concept brings together the Bairnsdale Secondary College, East Gippsland TAFE, East Gippsland Specialist School and Westdale Kindergarten into one integrated site in the very centre of Victoria’s East’s major regional centre. The concept stretches beyond physical co-location and infrastructure sharing to the creation of seamless pathways from Kindergarten right through to tertiary studies and has had strong support from all of the region’s education providers.

Victorian Education Minister, Bronwyn Pike, was briefed on the education hub project recently and has committed to fund the planning stage of the redevelopment of the Secondary College, which is considered the priority for stage one of the precinct’s creation.

Chairman of the education hub steering committee, Member for Gippsland East, Craig Ingram, described Ms Pike’s commitment as a major step forward. “Several meetings have been held this year to discuss requirements of current education providers with a view to consolidating their needs in new facilities located in the one precinct” Mr Ingram said.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government has announced $1.97million funding for a new Science centre at the Bairnsdale Secondary College, under the Building the Education Revolution program. “Redevelopment of the Science centre will form an integral part of the education hub for the region. It will provide the facilities to facilitate advanced training in a number of specialized science spheres including engineering and food chemistry which will support the region’s growing construction and food manufacturing sectors”, Mr Ingram said.

Recent announcements are not limited to planning and facilities funding, East Gippsland TAFE recently announced they have entered into an agreement with Deakin University to deliver a range of Associate Degrees in Bairnsdale through the Deakin at Your Doorstep program, which will be launched in 2010. This comes hard on the heels of the signing of an agreement between EG TAFE and the University of Ballarat that will see the creation of a significant number of new University places at their Sale Campus in 2011. Angela Hutson is delighted with the agreement saying that it means the students in Victoria’s East will have a broad range of TAFE and University courses on offer locally. “This memorandum of understanding will provide many local opportunities for study without the need to travel. Students will be able to maintain their network of friends and support of family and colleagues, which are all important factors in successful study” Ms Hutson added.

East Gippsland TAFE is also one of two regional TAFEs now delivering a Certificate in Engineering that provides a direct pathway into Monash University’s Engineering Degree
This month has seen the confirmation of the integration of the two Australian Technical Colleges located within Gippsland to East Gippsland TAFE , initially announced by the Hon Julia Gillard MP, Deputy Prime Minister in May 2009. The college has been be rebadged Gippsland Technical College (G-TEC) and will continue to operate from Bairnsdale and Sale. “With the integration of these two successful campuses with East Gippsland TAFE, Victoria’s East is assured that this valuable, specialized trade training college will continue to deliver outstanding training for our young people and provide industry with a growing number of apprentices to fill the region’s skill needs” Ms Hutson explained.