Ms Wood replaces former director Paul Callaghan, who announced his resignation in March after five years at the helm, to take up a role as chief executive of the Aboriginal Housing Office within the Department of Family and Community Services in Sydney.

She only started on Monday but has already visited some of the 11 campuses under her leadership, including Inverell and Armidale.

The plan is to get to them all as soon as she can, admitting the tyranny of distance is a new challenge after five years as the associate director of the Sydney Institute of TAFE.

“At Ultimo College, in the heart of the CBD, we have 32,000 enrolments in one city block, so there is an economy of scale ... but here, while you don’t have that same number of students, they’re spread across a much bigger area across multiple campuses,” she said.

She’s embracing the new environment though, saying, after many years with metropolitan TAFEs, she had wanted to get a feel for their regional cousins.

Ms Wood comes to the job in a time of great change for the TAFE model in NSW and said the challenge facing the organisation in the next 12 months was “extraordinary”.

From June next year, Smart and Skilled will change the way vocational education and training is funded in NSW.

Ms Wood said one of her main goals was ensuring TAFE New England was in the best position possible to compete under the new model.

For the first time, TAFEs will compete with private training providers for students in an open training market.

For set courses up to a certificate III level, which are identified from a skills list, students will be able to choose where they study, whether at a TAFE or a private college.

The college will then be subsidised by the state government to deliver the training.

Ms Wood said she had no doubt TAFE New England would evolve to compete in this new market and it was more important than ever to show the community just what TAFE had to offer.

“We have fantastic facilities and there’s been a steady investment in these over the years,” she said.

“Students are being trained by incredibly skilled and talented teachers, teachers who are highly skilled in their vocational area and receive further training once in TAFE.”

This kind of excellence comes at a price though, with state-of-the-art training facilities expensive to maintain and keep up-to-date with industry requirements.

“We have everything in place, but whether we can compete on price will be the question,” Ms Wood said.

She’s been impressed by the people she’s met within TAFE New England and said there was already a level of innovation within their ranks that would stand them in good stead in the  months ahead. 

“I’ve been impressed by their level of understanding of the policy directions and the increasingly competitive external environment, and the sorts of initiatives they’re already implementing are very innovative,” Ms Wood said.

“There’s no doubt in my mind we will thrive – it just may not look the way it does now.”