Thursday, 18 March 2021

Adjournment

Ringwood Training

Mr HODGETT (Croydon) (17:01): (5821) I wish to raise a matter with the Minister for Training and Skills, and the action I seek is for the state government to provide funding to Ringwood Training, which would allow for the expansion of their highly popular automotive training facility. Ringwood Training is a government registered training organisation—an RTO—located at the Ringwood Secondary College. They deliver vocational education and training qualifications to post-school and school-based students in three industry areas: automotive, engineering fabrication and information communication technology. I had the pleasure recently of visiting Shayne van der Heide, the manager of the set-up. Shayne proudly showed me around the site, which features industry-standard training facilities and high-tech machinery and equipment. The demand on the high-quality teaching offered has attracted a keen interest from prospective students, with student numbers in the past three years tripling, causing Ringwood Training to be in a position where they are growing out of their space. They currently have 542 students registered.

As a solution to space constraints, Ringwood Training would like to redesign the current automotive building, extending it towards Bedford Road, adding student amenities and approximately 300 square metres of floor space. They are seeking approximately $2 million to see this come to fruition. This would open the opportunity to provide additional future program deliveries of heavy vehicle training, a diploma in gaming and certificate IV engineering. Ringwood Training, like many other organisations, was greatly impacted in 2020 due to the COVID pandemic. Although a government RTO, they are recognised as a private facility and therefore cannot access the same funding opportunities available to other state government facilities. This has put them in an extremely difficult financial position.

The government is spending millions of dollars on free TAFE courses; however, Ringwood Training seem not to fit any of the funding models. They are seeking a level playing field when it comes to financial opportunities and therefore seek support from the state government. The minister as well as the member for Ringwood have visited with Ringwood Training, acknowledging within the Parliament the fabulous facility they have and noting their winning the Small Training Provider of the Year award at the 2019 Victorian Training Awards. This acknowledgement has been all well and good; however, there has been no funding support offered to ensure their continued success. I call on the Minister for Training and Skills to provide this much-needed funding and ensure the continued success and expansion of Ringwood Training.