The Federal Government has announced more than $21 million in funding for a state-of-the-art VET training facility to be built on Charles Darwin University’s Casuarina campus.
The Parliamentary Secretary for Training, Sharon Bird announced the funding of $21.3 million under the Regional Priorities Round of the Education Investment Fund.
CDU Vice-Chancellor Professor Barney Glover said the training facility would house plumbing, electro-technology, instrumentation, refrigeration, oil and gas industry operations, and in the future environmental trades.
“The facility will allow CDU’s delivery capacity to further develop new and existing programs for identified trade areas into the future for students across the Territory,” Professor Glover said.
“With numbers continuing to grow, the new facility is expected to produce an additional 750 VET graduates a year at Certificate III level and above.”
Ms Bird, who made the announcement at CDU on behalf of the Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Science and Research, Chris Bowen MP, said projects funded through the Regional Priorities Round would develop world class teaching and learning facilities to ensure regional students had better quality education opportunities.
“The project will provide targeted pathways and educational support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, recent migrants and refugees in skills relevant to the liquefied natural gas, energy and resources, and personal services sectors,” Ms Bird said.
The trades training facility will comprise internal open and flexibly configured learning spaces using mobile equipment, classrooms, a computer laboratory, a student common room, and staff office space. It will also include specially designed safe, open areas for dangerous and elevated skills training.
Modern ICT will be incorporated to enable the use of e-learning methods, including those requiring the high bandwidth capability of the National Broadband Network. The technological capability of the facilities will support remote delivery into more than 100 Indigenous communities.
Building work is expected to begin next month and be completed in 2014.