The Department for Education has announced that 2,000 additional fee-free Vocational Education and Training (VET) places – and more – are to be offered to South Australians wanting to be trained through private training providers.
The Department said it followed the Federal and State governments signing a 12-Month Skills Agreement last year to address the skills shortage and deliver fee-free TAFE and more VET places for people interested.
It said an essential part of South Australia’s negotiation for the agreement was ensuring private training providers were allocated some fee-free places in priority areas, which is not the case in some other States.
“Thirty-eight private training providers will soon be delivering training across a range of courses in the area,” the Department said, “including nursing, aged and disability care, health care and childcare, hospitality and tourism, construction, agriculture, defence and manufacturing and education.”
“The health and social care sector will receive the largest proportion of fee-free places, at 53 per cent, which showcases our commitment to the future needs of the state and our health sector,” it said.
“In the case of a Diploma of Nursing, this scheme will save students up to $10,000 in course fees.”
The Department said fee-free VET will better match training with skills shortages identified through the skills priority list, driving enrolments in key sectors.
It said that so far, more than 6,000 South Australians had taken advantage of fee-free training and enrolled at TAFE SA.
More information, including a list of the training providers and the 30 courses on offer can be accessed at this PS News link.
