Tafe NSW has qualified the first round of Signage apprentices from Queensland and Tasmania, having picked them up following the collapse of their training suppliers.
Queensland-based Apprentice Werx was one of many private training organisations to collapse in 2016, leaving a group of apprentices half-way through their training without options.
Tafe NSW took the Queensland students when Werx collapsed, some of whom have now completed their certifications.
Tasmanian sign and graphics apprentices had went through a similar process, when options in the state collapsed, leading Skills Tasmania to contact Tafe NSW to pick up students.
More recently, Tasmanian print apprentices have seen Tafe SA announce its withdrawal from providing studies from 2018 onwards, with no new students being accepted, leaving the state’s apprentices in the lurch.
A large portion of the Tasmanian printing industry met on December 8 to discuss the future of print apprentices among other topics, Victorian public educator Holmesglen is offering to take them on and is currently negotiating with the state.
As for how Tasmanian printers can get signage apprentices qualified, Ian Squire, head teacher, Pain & Decorate / Signage, Wollongong Tafe, NSW, explains, “First of all, they have to be enrolled in Cert III in Signs and Graphics, then they can contact us directly at Wollongong Tafe.
“They have to talk to a local apprenticeship centre in Tafe Tasmania, to see if they are eligible for appropriate funding.
“Once that it is down, they are lodged on the Tasmanian register, Skills Tasmania, the funding board for Tasmanian students, funds it through an agreement that Tafe NSW has with the Tasmanian Government.
“Once that it is done, then we can start, although we need enough numbers to run the groups. Sometimes we can incorporate them with our NSW students to make it a viable group.
“Over the two year period there are six five day blocks at Tafe NSW, combined with on-site training that we conduct down in Tasmania with apprentices in their workplace. So face-to-face on their site too.
“In between the visits there is theoretical coursework which needs to be completed, and a certain amount of practical work in their own workplaces.
“Generally the first site visit is to ascertain what they do at the site, to see if the employer can cover all the units chosen in the training plan.”
Now that Tafe NSW is taking the Tasmanian students, they are also competing in the WorldSkills competition, facing off against the best from other states in the hope to compete nationally, the first time they have done so.
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