The $3.36 million ugprades for Gunnedah TAFE have been officially opened.
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Gunnedah Chamber of Commerce's Juliana McArthur and Michael Broekman, Minister for Skills and Teritary Education Geoff Lee, Gunnedah mayor Jamie Chaffey and many others were in attendance to cut the red ribbon and celebrate the milestone.
Chamber president Juliana McArthur said the completed upgrades were "very exciting for Gunnedah".
"Students can be trained on the latest equipment and that's got to help with the familiarity they need for employment," Mrs McArthur said.
"Industry and business is always innovative so TAFE has to keep pace with those technological changes which happen very quickly."
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The group took a tour of the new facilities, which include a multi-trades workshop, digitally-connected learning spaces and a specialist light automotive workshop.
Mr Lee said the next step was to encourage local young people to use the new TAFE.
"The $3 million investment is a fantastic improvement to the ability for us to train in whole range of trade skills, agricultural skills, mining skills," Mr Lee said.
"They're state-of-the-art multi-purpose facilities and I think we have to encourage our young people to get involved and get a trade."
What we know is, once you give people the right skills, they can get not just the job, but a rewarding career.
- Minister Geoff Lee
The opening also celebrated the beginning of the new pre-apprenticeship course, which Mr Lee said gave young people "the foundation skills to actually get their first job".
"I think for many young people the hardest thing is getting those basic level of skills ... so employers can say 'right, you have the skills, we want you for a job'," he told the Namoi Valley Independent.
"This is just getting young people, whether they're at school to choose a career in the trades or unemployed people, to say 'right this gives me a career opportunity'."
"What we know is, once you give people the right skills, they can get not just the job, but a rewarding career."
The new course will also help local businesses find new employees, as it involves a placement component.
Fifteen students are enrolled in this course, with more on the waiting list.
The chamber and Minister Lee are hoping it will be successful so it can be run again.
"Its about how can we roll it out ... to the mainstream," Mr Lee said.
Funding for the project was announced in June 2019 as part of the state government's 2019/2020 budget.