Fed Training saves ag course

Federation Training has come to the rescue for agricultural and dairy students in Gippsland that faced the prospect of not having a locally based training organisation.

Federation will fill the void in the dairy training following the shock decision late last year by Shepparton-based GOTAFE to close its campuses at Warragul and Leongatha and focus on servicing northern Victoria.

That came after Dairy Australia announced it would phase in a new industry training framework.

The decisions affected several hundred Gippsland people that were part way through courses or planning to enrol this year as well as about a dozen staff based in the region.

And it was not only dairy training that was impacted.

GOTAFE also ran courses across a range of agricultural industries for VCAL (Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning) students, certificate level and diploma courses and short courses for farmers on a wide range of topics.

Federation Training that serves the Gippsland region is also considering re-activating GOTAFE’s previous Warragul campus at the Baw Baw Skills Centre.

Centre manager Rod Dunlop said Federation executives had inspected the facility last week and would visit again this week.

Federation’s executive director of strategic engagement Tim Weight said the organisation was delighted to help honour the original commitment to existing agricultural and dairy students to enable them to complete their studies.

“We are the local TAFE, fully committed to the Gippsland region and keen to work with agricultural and dairy connections to identify future training needs”.

He said the institute already had the infrastructure and processes in place to offer a seamless transition for students currently enrolled.

The Gazette understands that at least some of the staff engaged in Gippsland by GOTAFE, whose jobs have also been affected, are under consideration to be offered positions with Federation.

GippsDairy regional manager Allan Cameron said that with Federation locked in as a training provider for 2018 previous programs could be built on and new initiatives developed.