The day will include workshops in:

• Nursing
• Aged Care
• Massage
• Fitness
• Community Services
• Podiatry
• Aboriginal Health
• Pharmacy
• Physiotherapy
• Speech Pathology
• Dentistry
• Dietetics.

Registration for this event is open to selected schools and students.

Register your attendance at the 2010 Health Careers Forum

Complete the medical terminology quiz and go in the draw to win great prizes.  Winners announced on the 24 March.

A kind thank you to our sponsors

• YMCA – Wodonga Sports and Leisure Centre
• Albury Ten Pin Bowl
• Wodonga Ten Pin Bowl
• Video Ezy
• Albury Regent Cinema.

For more information, please contact Leo Whyte at La Trobe University, 02 6024 9785.

Media will be in attendance on the day. Students will be filmed/photographed for media and promotional purposes. It is the responsibility of the schools to ensure the appropriate release documents are signed by students/parents etc.

Thanks to a joint program between the City of Albury and Wodonga TAFE there is now an opportunity for young people in the region to gain high school graduation as well as learn the essential skills for running their own business while managing the Retro Café in Dean Street under the expert guidance of a mentor.

Enthusiastic young people are invited to apply to become part of the team that will run the Café. 

The idea came from Wodonga TAFE’s Victoria Conlan who said, “It’ll be challenging, but it’s an opportunity to learn, work and come out with some great employability skills…it’s a really great example of applied learning “.

Mrs Conlan went on to say, “The structure is similar to Jamie Oliver’s ‘15’; however, here students will manage all aspects of the business, not just cooking”.  The program is open to all determined young people who can see themselves operating their business in the future.

The successful applicants will enter a 10 month program in which the course work is integrated into the operation of the cafe.  This is ideal for people who like learning on the job.

Graduates of the program gain three qualifications; a Certificate III in Business, the Senior VCAL and national units from the Certificate II in Hospitality. 

Mrs Conlan also said that students will be responsible for writing a business and marketing plan, completing market research, organising staff, creating rosters and budgets, designing uniforms while also managing the hospitality aspect of the business, such as cooking, front of house, making coffee and even managing events. 

The hours worked at the café will be voluntary, however, there will be some exciting employment and learning opportunities available with Wodonga TAFE once the program has finished.

The program starts on 22 February 2010 with some intense training at the TAFE to prepare students for the grand opening of their very own business!

Applications are now open, to apply please contact Victoria Conlan on 02 6055 6358 or email vconlan@wodongatafe.edu.au.  Applications close on the 19^th February 2010.

The 19-year-old Diploma of Events graduate was nominated for the award by teacher Tracey Holley, who is ecstatic with the outcome.

“We are just so proud to see one of our regional students compete and win against a range of University and TAFE students from the Victorian metropolitan area. It is a huge achievement for Mel,” said Mrs Holley.

Mrs Holley also said that the support of the local community is a great contributor to the success of events students such as Mel.  “Local government and business allow the students to participate in fantastic voluntary, hands-on work experience as part of their learning.”

A very excited Melanie said, “I was very surprised when I heard that I had won the scholarship, especially when I saw the competition that I was up against. My family and friends are so proud of me and are wishing me the best of luck.”

MEA is a national not-for-profit organization that aims to ensure excellence in all aspects of meetings and events by offering professional development programs, accreditation and recognition for its members.  MEA also represents the event industry to government.

Melanie is looking forward to commencing her scholarship, which will allow her to attend the MEA conference in Melbourne, networking events and also meet some key industry contacts. 

 Melanie will enter a mentoring program where she will be mentored by MEA professionals and will also be a guest speaker for MEA youth at the upcoming conference. She also plans to move to Melbourne soon to work in the events industry.

Wodonga TAFE has several nationally recognised courses in events. These courses offered in 2010 include Certificate III, Diploma and Advanced Diploma in Events and can be studied part-time or full-time.

Wodonga TAFE has three capital works projects underway that are designed to improve access to our services and reduce our environmental footprint. These projects are funded by the Australian Government through the Teaching and Learning Capital Fund (TLCF) for Vocational Education and Training (VET).

Childcare extension

The Kids on Campus childcare centre caters for the needs of Institute staff and students enrolled at Wodonga TAFE, as well as ex-students. The building is being extended to increase the physical floor space to accommodate the centre’s growth in demand in areas such as out-of-school-hours care, child care for young mums enrolled at TAFE, and a kindergarten program. The extension will be completed by March 2010.

The centre also provides training opportunities for our diploma and certificate-level children’s services students. The project will include an observation room within the existing facility to be used by these students as a learning tool. The room will accommodate 10-15 students at a time and provide them with the opportunity to observe and study the interaction of children at any time without directly impacting on the children during care.   

New connectivity network

A full wireless area network (WLAN) is being constructed across all campuses to enhance the capability of the Wodonga TAFE facility to provide world-class connectivity and communications to students and staff. This will benefit students by providing them with an enhanced and more flexible relationship with their teachers and fellow students. This technological capability will bring Wodonga TAFE into the 21^st century meeting client expectations of the latest technological approaches to teaching, demand-driven training content provision and flexible approaches to learning both on and off campus.

This project also contributes to the wider Victorian government training and educational goal of high quality education and training for life-long learning contributing to quality job and career outcomes, within a thriving innovative Victorian industry context.

Retro-fitting for sustainability

Wodonga TAFE’s sustainability action plan applies environmentally sustainable design concepts in all new buildings; however, there are a significant number of buildings on campus that are older than five years. As part of the Institute’s commitment to reducing its carbon footprint, a portion of the funding will assist in refurbishing these existing older buildings with:

• energy efficient lighting and automatic energy-saving mechanisms
• installation of rain water tanks plumbed into all existing toilets and laundry
• replacement of existing large-capacity cisterns
• · audit by mechanical engineer to provide a report on existing air conditioning and heating plant with a recommended technology replacement schedule
  • installation of paper waste weighing equipment to reduce paper waste across the institute.

This project is due for completion in February 2010.

This campaign is an exciting step forward for Wodonga TAFE - it represents a positive branding message for regional TAFEs and offers important points of differentiation from private providers. These points of differentiation include the breadth of our offer, that we are not profit-driven but are results-driven in terms of student career outcomes; we are local and in the community and industry.

The campaign will consist of the following:

Regional TAFE Victoria brand identity logo to be used in conjunction with ours to denote that we are a public provider of TAFE and the quality assurance that is associated with that.

• TV campaign - in Albury will be 40% WIN/60% Prime
• Radio campaign - Star/River/2AY
• Digital campaign - promos on websites such as Yahoo, NineMSN, News Digital

Keep an eye and an ear out for the ads. The radio ads are all based on courses we deliver. The TV ads should be available this week.

Mr Sput Lowry, Manager of NISTC said "Being a part of the Henty Field Days each year takes us to people who may not be aware of the diverse industrial training offered at NISTC. We also offer training needs analysis for staff to assist with design and development of training programs, tailored to suit businesses and/or workplace requirements."

"We were really impressed with the overall interest and as a prize for filling out a questionnaire we offered choices in some of our short courses including forklift or chainsaw operation, motorcycle training and medium or heavy rigid truck or heavy combination which Mr Roy Reaper from Thurgoona will be taking up as winner. Roy said he was looking forward to increasing his skills in driving".

Mr David Foote, Agriculture Team Leader said "our time at the Henty Field Days gave us terrific exposure and an opportunity to feature our growing agricultural training courses. Miss Brooke McKay of Henty was excited to win an ipod touch. Brooke lives on a farm and is a keen gardener with interests in landscaping."

Mr Foote went on to say "choosing a career in agriculture can gain you knowledge and skills for successfully operating or managing a farming enterprise, as well as short courses in tractors, quad bikes and chainsaws, and we also offer flexible, work-place based training options."

Bayden Clissold from the MTA said, "This tour provided us with a greater awareness of current practices within the larger Motorsports industry. My goal is to extend our competitive advantage and allow us a greater flexibility when tendering for training opportunities in the future. Longer term, the tour will help to establish relationships with international companies that will allow us to offer options to our  students wishing to further their studies or even seek employment overseas."

MTA has been delivering motorsports training since 2000.

Paul King, CFA Operations Manager for the Wodonga Region said "Wodonga Institute has offered us a well equipped space that enables us to plug a gap in our capabilities. Before the establishment of this ICC, we had no appropriate location to manage incidents from. In a high risk environment such as the greater Wodonga area, having access to a high tech facility like this will mean our incident management capability will be more efficient  -  messages, warnings, fire behavior and weather patterns will be disseminated to staff and community much faster, helping to reduce incident reaction times."

The CFA / DSE ICC requirements to accommodate 40 incident management staff are easily met by the Institute's premises - with the LIRNSpace also providing high speed IT connectivity conducive to optimal and timely information flow between the fire front and community.

The partnership between CFA/DSE and Wodonga Institute comes at an opportune time. Wodonga has consistently ranked as one of the fastest growing areas in Regional Victoria, causing it to be at greater risk of wild fire in and around residential areas.

Through Wodonga Institute, the ICC will have the following features essential to effective incident management:

• adequate space for 40 Incident management and support people.
• high Speed / High Capacity IT for transmission of Maps, Plans, Warnings, and for receipt of weather and fire prediction data.
• capacity for Police, SES, Municipalities and other support agencies to work alongside Fire managers.
• central and available to "footprint" (area of operation)
• close links to fire ground commanders
• ability to land helicopters adjacent

Mr Bruce Simpson, Bakery teacher said "Bryce competed against his peers to win a gold medal in the Retail Baking Bread section of the competition and will now go on to the National finals to be held in Brisbane next year."

"As a second year apprentice in the Certificate III in Food Processing (Retail Baking - Combined) course at Wodonga TAFE, Bryce is also well supported by his employer Dash Geoghan from the Chiltern Bakery", Mr Simpson said.

"Bryce shows solid commitment for a 17 year old and his proud parents were there to congratulate him at the award ceremony held at the Henry Nowik Theatre at Charles Sturt University", Mr Simpson said.

"The Riverina Area World Skills group represents the Albury and Wodonga region and the competition is available to anyone in the industry. It's a great opportunity to challenge yourself and measure your skills against others in the industry as well as gaining new techniques and methods." Mr Simpson concluded.

Wodonga TAFE offers several Certificate III courses in Food Processing including Retail Baking - Bread, Retail Baking - Combined and Sales and can offer these courses as a traineeship or apprenticeship. These courses offered in 2010 will also include Retail Baking - Cake and Pastry.

These nationally-recognised courses will prepare apprentices for a career in the retail baking industry.