An innovative partnership between TAFE NSW and the Tweed Valley Hospital is set to deliver improved education and training opportunities for the people of the Tweed, with the Nationals in Government today announcing it would establish a “Tweed Valley Skills Centre” at Kingscliff TAFE.
Minister responsible for TAFE NSW Adam Marshall today announced the initiative with Member for Tweed Geoff Provest. Mr Provest said the Centre would leverage the construction of the Tweed Valley Hospital to maximise job opportunities for locals and deliver enhanced training at TAFE.
“This exciting partnership is going to leverage the construction of our brand new hospital to deliver better job opportunities for locals and provide our local TAFE with world-class health care training facilities,” Mr Provest said.
“As we move to the construction phase of the hospital TAFE NSW is going to act as a feeding point to ensure our local apprentices are given the opportunity to get their hands-on training and qualification on the site of the Tweed Valley Hospital.
“This is about ensuring our local community not only gets world-class health care facilities but also the huge job opportunities that come with major infrastructure builds like this.
“One of the more innovative parts of the agreement is the fact Health Infrastructure NSW will build prototype health care facilities that will replicate the proposed hospital. These will then be handed over to TAFE NSW to be used as simulated learning environments for students studying things like nursing and aged care.
“Those facilities will allow TAFE students to develop their skills in an environment as close to the actual Tweed Hospital as you can get.
“Having that opportunity will be a huge boon to our TAFE students and give them a leg-up when it comes to securing future employment at the Tweed Hospital.”
Mr Marshall said the initiative would give local TAFE students and apprentices the very best in training and job opportunities.
“This is going to ensure our TAFE students are afforded the very best opportunities to develop their hands-on skills on a construction site and train in the best facilities for future jobs at the hospital,” Mr Marshall said.
“The Nationals understand that major infrastructure projects are about more than just delivering world-class hospitals, schools and roads. They’re also about setting up our communities with rewarding job opportunities that will help them get ahead in life.”
The Tweed Valley Skills Centre will be a joint partnership between TAFE NSW and the Northern NSW Local Health District and will deliver simulated healthcare facilities as well as a “Skills and Employment Hub” that will serve as a drop-in facility for community, students and local industry to connect with the Tweed Hospital Project. It is anticipated construction of the Skills Centre will commence mid-2019.