Slashed TAFE fees a boon for entire community

Introduced at the start of the year, the state government's "lower fees, local skills" initiative saw nine courses at the campus halved in cost, in an effort to stimulate training in areas vital to the local community.

Those sectors include health care, aged care, social assistance, construction and a range of others that will provide students with a platform to launch into the workforce.

One of those students is Debbie Oliver, who is currently studying her Certificate III in individual support, which offers an avenue to becoming an aged care assistant.

Ms Oliver has always had a desire to study the course, but said the reduced fees basically "made up her mind."

"The lower cost made it a really easy decision to get into the course," she said.

"I worked in retail before this and just really wanted the chance to try something out, so knowing the cost was halved took a lot of pressure off.

"Since then it's been fabulous - I've really enjoyed it."

Ms Oliver is one of many students to have enrolled at the Mandurah campus since the introduction of the reduced costs, with the TAFE showing strong signs of growth in 2020.

Early enrolment activity is also showing increases in Certificate III in tourism and Certificate III in commercial cookery.

It's a result that pleases Education minister Sue Ellery, who along with Mandurah MP David Templeman paid a visit to the students on Tuesday morning.

"Reduced course fees make training more affordable and accessible to the community, which is important to help youth in Mandurah gain skills for employment opportunities," she said.

"It's fantastic to see all these people enrolling to study the courses they're passionate about."

Mr Templeman cited the newly-enrolled students as a benefit for the entire Peel region.

"For us here it was critical we target courses that are going to directly affect our community," he said.

"There's a high demand for aged care here, and we know these students are going to go on to become our next generation of highly qualified aged care workers.

"To be able to offer that high quality training and eventually get people into jobs is the main outcome we want."

For more information on courses at the South Metropolitan TAFE, call 1800 001 001.