Tasmania's tradespeople now have access to state-of-the-art training in using sustainable technologies and materials across the construction, furniture and allied trades areas with the opening of The Skills Institute's Green Skills Centre for Excellence at the Alanvale training facility in Launceston.
The $7.15 million centre was built using $6.4 million in federal government funding under the Training Infrastructure Investment for Tomorrow element of the Teaching and Learning Capital Fund for Vocational Education and Training, as well as $750,000 from the state government through the Skills Institute.
The facility will be officially opened by Bass Labor MHR Geoff Lyons, representing the federal government, today, Friday, July 22.
The Green Skills Centre of Excellence has been purpose-built to meet the growing demand in the Tasmanian construction, furniture and allied trades industries for skills training in sustainable technologies and materials.
The building itself is also green star rated.
The Green Skills Centre of Excellence building comprises state-of-the-art construction, allied trades and furniture-making workshops with indoor and outdoor training facilities.
A highlight is the purchase of $650,000 worth of state-of-the-art woodworking machines including a five-axis computer controlled work centre, believed to be the first of its kind in the state.
This means that furniture trades apprentices now have access to machinery that is at the cutting edge of technology.
The building also houses classrooms, information technology laboratories, preparation areas, setting out areas, student and staff amenities and material stores.
Until this new facility was built, construction, allied trades and furniture training facilities operated from a pre-World War II textile factory on the fringe of the Launceston central business district, with the most recent modifications carried out 30 years ago.
Relocation of this training to the Green Skills Centre of Excellence consolidates traditional trade skills on a single site in Launceston at Alanvale, bringing together services and student support and facilities such as on- site accommodation for apprentices from other parts of the state.
The centre has been operating for the past two months, with many Tasmanian businesses appreciating the potential benefits they can bring to their business by training through the facility.
Qualifications being delivered at the site include:
• Construction.
• Cabinet making.
• Carpentry and joinery.
• Concreting.
• Furniture making (cabinet making and wood machining).
• Upholstery and production upholstery.
• Building construction.
• Civil construction plant operations short course.
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