Challenger TAFE | Annual Report 2006 - Parliament of Western ...

CHAPTER 4 – CHAIRPERSON’S REPORT
Challenger TAFE | Annual Report 2006 19
The dynamic demand-driven Australian VET environment and its impacts on the TAFEWA sector have presented both exciting
opportunities and challenges for our decision-making and employees in 2006. Our awareness of pressures of the global
economy at local level helps us shape Challenger activities, the skill sets we have and should extend, and the niche areas of our
business activity. The changing structures of work prompt us to respond using new training solutions for our learners including
mature workers, labour market entrants and community members.
4.1 Aligning With Industry and Community Needs
At a time of expansion in WA’s resources and housing sectors, training demands placed on Challenger TAFE in the light
transport, construction, defence and resources industries were addressed with some regrouping and up-skilling of staff in
our specialist training centres. The construction of an Automotive Industry Training Centre to be located within the Kwinana
Education and Training Precinct and strategically located close to the Kwinana Motorplex and the proposed Wattleup heavy
transport terminal formed a strand of the changed industry orientation. Within the community sector, there was a similar
consolidation of staff skills in an amalgamated community development portfolio.
In 2006, the increase by one year in the age a young person could leave school has encouraged Challenger TAFE to be
increasingly proactive with emergent technologies to assist Generation Y learners to acquire new skills in ways they can readily
respond to. The learning strategies devised also increase the learning options away from traditional classrooms for our other
learners.
4.2 Strategic Responsiveness
The focus in 2006 was on consolidation, particularly after the college won the National Training Award of the Year and Australian
Adult Education Provider of the Year in 2005. We welcomed a new Managing Director in March.
To consolidate strong programs, student scholarship programs were extended to include, by the close of 2006, two Alcoa
Scholarships for Indigenous students, fi ve LionOre scholarships to Challenger students, two Workpac Engineering Scholarships,
two Source Personnel Engineering Scholarships, four China Classifi cation Society Scholarships awarded to Marine Engineering
students, and City of Fremantle and Fremantle Chamber of Commerce awards to allow two students to present their fashion
ranges at the 2006 Fremantle Fashion Festival.
Support for staff scholarships was again a feature of 2006 activity, with two staff members extending their formal expertise using
staff scholarship grants and 88 staff working within Learnscope and Reframing the Future project funding to develop additional
training solutions.
Career Advisory Services to prospective and current students were extended in 2006 to provide expert staff at all major campuses
and at the Fremantle Chamber of Commerce. Employment placement services also grew with an increase in job opportunities
available to our students and the launch of a Jobs Expo conducted in October in Fremantle that featured a number of employers
with ready vacancies in their companies.
The Hospitality and Tourism Training Centre was re-badged as Quinlan’s Hospitality and Tourism Training Centre with Quinlan’s
Training Restaurant at the Fremantle Campus, Quinlan’s On High training café in the West End of Fremantle, Quinlan’s Galley at
the Maritime Campus and Quinlan’s at the Point, proposed for the Peninsula redevelopment site in Mandurah.
4.3 Infrastructure Development
Australian Centre for Energy and Process Training (ACEPT)
ACEPT is a consortium of six (6) TAFE Colleges, with the Secretariat based at Fremantle, and current operational delivery at
Subiaco. A new location for ACEPT is currently under construction in the Australian Marine Complex (AMC) Henderson. The
project budget is $22m with a further land acquisition value of $1.4m. Forward works were completed in June 2006 and the
Centre is scheduled for completion in April-May 2007, with the process plant completed by August 2007. An extension to ACEPT
training delivery has included a recent initiative to provide safety induction on behalf of Worley Parsons through an Induction
Centre in Kwinana.