TAFEspace - new Wodonga TAFE and City of Wodonga building

Community opening and official naming event occurred on Tuesday 16 November 2010 between 5.30 and 7.30 pm at the new building at 158 Lawrence Street, Wodonga.

In a joint venture between Wodonga TAFE and the City of Wodonga, a new building has been constructed at 158 Lawrence Street, Wodonga, which has been designed to provide a new community and business space for coming together for education and training, and a broad range of community activities.

On Tuesday 16 November, Tony Brandt, Chair of Wodonga TAFE Board, and Wodonga Mayor Cr Mark Byatt will jointly welcome members of the community at an event to celebrate the opening of this new building, as well as revealing and officially recognising the name of the new building.

The building has been made possible through the provision of land by the City of Wodonga as well as funding support provided by the Australian Government through the Training Infrastructure Investment for Tomorrow (TIIFT) fund.

This environmentally sustainable building will provide a unique range of flexible spaces and rooms for business and other organisations to access and use for events, strategic planning and other development sessions, and meetings. There are spaces that can be opened up or divided into smaller areas or rooms. A boardroom has been fitted with communications and presentation technology to provide an ideal location to conduct meetings. A large space upstairs is an ideal venue for corporate planning and other events that need to house a large number of people at once for activities. The building houses several small kitchens to enable catering.

“This is a new opportunity to strengthen the interface between business, the community and the TAFE,” said Mike O’Loughlin, Chief Executive Officer of Wodonga TAFE. “This building is an ideal location for us to situate activities that the community and industry need to readily access. To this end, we will be making key services available there, including small business information, careers information and guidance.

“Wodonga TAFE will also provide some training opportunities at the building, for example, leadership and business training.

“But this facility is not just for Wodonga TAFE’s use,” Mr O’Loughlin continued. “The City of Wodonga will be able to access the space for its various activities, as will a key partner, the Wodonga Chamber of Commerce. We also encourage businesses and other organisations including community groups and not-for-profits to participate in utilising this unique space for meetings and events.”

“The relationship between Wodonga TAFE, the Wodonga Chamber of Commerce and this building will, in particular, provide new opportunities for businesses to come together to build capacity and capability in this space. A key focus of this building will be to foster consideration of sustainable activities in its widest sense – business, social, environmental - into our region.

“In particular, Wodonga TAFE will be positioning staff in the new building who can assist with careers advice and recognition of prior learning, which people in our community can freely access to assist in furthering their employment situation for the benefit of our regional economy,” said Mr O’Loughlin.

Cr Mark Byatt said the project has forged a great relationship between Wodonga Council and Wodonga TAFE.

“Our staff have met on many occasions during the construction of this building to talk about its uses for our community,” Cr Byatt said.

“It is a great asset for our residents, who will have access to spaces for learning and events right in the heart of our city.

“The building compliments our cultural and community precinct, which includes Arts Space Wodonga, the Wodonga Library, Wodonga Seniors Citizens' Hall and the Wodonga Civic Centre, which will be demolished later this year to make way for the new Arts, Community and Entertainment Centre (ACEC).

“This precinct will truly be the meeting place of Wodonga's residents into the future.”