Tuesday, 18 February 2025

 Gayle TIERNEY (Western Victoria – Minister for Skills and TAFE, Minister for Water) (12:37): It was my pleasure to officially open the Health and Community Centre of Excellence at Broadmeadows TAFE last week. This $60 million state-funded TAFE centre of excellence will offer the most in-demand courses to the local community, delivering the opportunity not just to get a job but to start a rewarding and fulfilling career in the care and community sectors. I could spend hours talking about how these facilities blew us away, but I would like to share some of the stories told by TAFE students to the Premier, local member Kathleen Matthews-Ward and me. One student, Elias, came to Australia from Syria, where he was working on the relief effort. This work led him to finding his passion in community services. He told us how excited he is to complete his qualifications over the next three months at this new centre. Another, Liz, was looking at changing careers to become qualified in early childhood education. She found that completing a certificate III and a diploma would cost her $16,000. Needless to say, that was a lot of money, but then Liz found the link to free TAFE and realised, ‘Hang on, I can do this.’ So 20 years after completing a diploma of administration at the same campus, she was thrilled to be back in the same place but with a new facility. TAFE offers her a flexible learning environment so that she can balance her caring responsibilities as well. These stories just reaffirm what this government already knows: TAFE changes lives and free TAFE opens doors by removing financial barriers.