VET briefs

Public VET on the upper Output from Australia’s publicly funded VET providers continued to grow steadily last year, according to preliminary statistics from the National Centre for Vocational Education Research. Between 2007 and 2008, the number of students increased by 31,400 to almost 1.7 million. Subject enrolments rose by more than 600,000 to almost 13 million, and total hours of delivery grew by over 18 million to 409 million. Victoria was the fastest growing state, attracting an extra 17,000 students and 250,000 subject enrolments. Other gun states were Tasmania, where hours of delivery grew 10 per cent to 9.8 million, and Western Australia, where subject enrolments grew 10 per cent to 1.2 million. The only slides were in NSW and the Northern Territory, where student numbers declined slightly but subject enrolments rose, and South Australia, where enrolments dropped slightly but student numbers were up. Go to www.ncver.edu.au/publications/2159.html Boot camp for Oz skills team The Australian team for this year’s WorldSkills International has taken a three-day training camp at the Australian Institute of Sport, in preparation for competition in Canada in September. The camp included training in nutrition, fitness and performance psychology and talks from athletes and coaches. Australia has competed at every WorldSkills International competition since 1988 and is ranked fifth globally. The 26 apprentices, trainees and students in this year’s team will compete in fields including bricklaying, plumbing, web design and cooking. New training boss for ACT Dr Jim Watterston has been named chief executive of the ACT Department of Education and Training, replacing Janet Davy who has occupied the position in an interim capacity. Watterston joins the ACT from Victoria, where he’s a regional education director. He has also worked in Western Australia as a superintendent and primary and secondary principal. Watterston has a research profile on the development of lifelong learning curriculum. Green skills training for grey water The new Green Trades Complex at Swinburne University’s Croydon campus will help Australian industries make the transition to a low-carbon economy, according to DVC (TAFE) Linda Brown. Brown said the facility, the first of its kind in Victoria, would up-skill and re-skill apprentices in grey water systems, solar installations and water-wise plumbing and irrigation. She said it would train over 10,000 new apprentices by 2015. “With a quarter of employment in Croydon coming from construction and manufacturing, the complex will have a real impact locally as well as nationally,” she said. Swinburne facilities and services director Dr Andrew Smith said the centre would also be used to deliver training in other areas, including emergency services. The centre, which is due to be completed this time next year, is one of 32 Training Infrastructure Investment for Tomorrow (TIIFT) projects which will attract federal funds of $200 million (CR, 22.06.09).