Community links and partnerships

Wodonga TAFE maintains strong links to our local community, schools, other education providers and local government, keeping us informed of current trends and issues facing business.

Sponsorships

We have strong links with arts and community groups through our sponsorship of a number of events. For sponsorship guidelines, please contact the Market Research, Strategy and Services Manager.

Phone 02 6055 6923 | Email marketing@wodongatafe.edu.au

Partnerships

The need to develop enduring partnerships and links has been identified as a crucial element of Wodonga TAFE's strategic directions, both in terms of our approach to enabling individuals, growing industry and enterprise capability, and in strengthening community capacity. We recognise that partnerships are absolutely fundamental to efficiency, particularly in our rural and remote contexts.

Wodonga Institute enjoys partnerships with many organisations - educational, industrial, business, environmental, social, health, and community. This enables us to be responsive to the region's educational and training needs. We actively support the North East Local Learning and Employment Network (NELLEN), the Albury Wodonga Community College, and the Learning City Initiative.

Wodonga TAFE is also involved with other partnership programs.

• The Country Fire Authority (CFA), the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE), and Wodonga Institute have formalised a partnership agreement to house a fire incident control centre in Wodonga Institute's high-tech LIRNspace. The Level 3 incident control centre will operate in a readiness and response mode over the critical summer months when traditional educational demands on the Institute's space are low.
• Wodonga Institute's first group of participants in the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme (NEIS) graduated on 2 September 2009. Wodonga Institute's involvement in NEIS benefits the local business community by fostering innovation, promoting employment opportunities, and contributing to the region's local economic performance.
• Our 'Caring for Kids' program was developed in consultation with a range of agencies that were involved on a casework basis with young mothers, aged between 15 and 24 years, and usually from very socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds. This program has had a huge effect on its participants, many of whom have re-engaged not only in the community, but in mainstream education or vocational education and training, and ultimately, employment.
• We have a successful auspicing arrangement with Vic Serv, the peak body for mental health and psychiatric disability in Victoria. Through Vic Serv, Wodonga Institute has co-developed training materials in a workforce-based format with combined workshop and out-in-the field modes of learning. Vic Serv wants to raise standards for mental health in Victoria and in that light, the program developed has been validated and widely accepted by industry.
• Wodonga Institute's National Industrial Skills Training Centre (NISTC) provided certificate courses, funded through the Rural Skills Connect program, to farmers in Moira and Indigo Shires. The outcome for the farmers was that they were formally accredited in the operation of an excavator and front-end loader. This certificate provides proof of competence and opens up new employment opportunities.
• Our Water, Land, and Food department and North East Catchment Management Authority have developed training resources that reflect best practice in native seed collection.
• The On Track Go Kart project which is a partnership between Motorsports Training Australia and the YWCA targets disadvantaged and disengaged young people who have dropped out of school. The project works to develop application and interview skills in these young people. Learner Services, local secondary schools, mental health providers, and employment networks are involved in the Building Bridges program.