Predicting Tasmania's workforce requirements is a bit like "looking into a crystal ball" but a monumental effort is underway to make sure the skills pipeline does not dry up.
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Vocational education and skills-based training will be critical for Tasmania's recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and TasTAFE is working hard to ensure it is responsive to industry and its current student cohort. TasTAFE chief executive Jenny Dodd said there was a monumental effort being undertaken to transition as many students as possible to at-home learning.
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"What we've done now is done a lot of work to resequence courses so the theory component is completed now and can be done online," Ms Dodd said.
"We are preparing for the practical elements of courses to be done later on in the year under the assumption that restrictions may be lifted."
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This week it was revealed one of Tasmania's largest construction firms Fairbrother has had to lay off some workers, which the firm says is in part due to a lower volume of work in Northern Tasmania.
Construction has been identified as a key industry which will assist Tasmania on the road to recovery out of the coronavirus pandemic and Ms Dodd said a lot of work was being done at TasTAFE to ensure the pipeline of apprentices was not affected.
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"We have put a lot of emphasis on apprentices across the board, not just in construction, but also for our third and fourth-year apprentices, to make sure there's no disruption to their learning," Ms Dodd said.
"This was despite some apprentices across industries being laid off or temporarily stood down due to lack of work during the pandemic conditions.
Ms Dodd said TasTAFE had worked hard and was in a position to start bringing in groups of staggered apprentices to campuses to complete their practical elements.
She said if they did so, strict social distancing measures would be in place and only small groups of apprentices would come in.
Ms Dodd praised the work done by TasTAFE's staff and how they had worked hard to make sure no student's education was impacted by the changes.
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"It's been a monumental effort by everyone," she said.
While a lot of work is being done for existing students, Ms Dodd said TasTAFE would be vital for those looking to upskill, reskill or retrain following the pandemic.
She said the institution was looking to offer some short courses in key industries such as tourism, hospitality and also foundation skills.
"There will be shifts within industry where the jobs gaps are and what we are doing is trying to be adaptive to offer something in a different way," she said.
Ms Dodd said TasTAFE would be "fundamental to the recovery" of Tasmania's economy because it would be crying out for skills-based workers.
"We expect in industries such as tourism, dental, construction, nursing, the demand for those will pick back up once restrictions have eased," she said.
"So we will be working hard to make sure the pipeline of workers is not affected."