Upcoming TAFE manual lathe and milling machine course at Acacia Ridge, Qld.

[Kraehe]

Hi Guys,

TAFE (SkillsTech) is planning to run a course in manual lathe and milling machine use at the Acacia Ridge campus sometime in February. I gather that whether the course actually runs depends on how much interest it gets.

A friend and I have put our names on the Expressions of Interest list. I'm hoping others will be interested too. If so, please contact SkillsTech to register your interest ([email protected]). I'd suggest you do so now (or very soon). :)

Regards,

Darren.

[steamingbill]

Hello,

Am curious - a similar TAFE course in Victoria was going to cost me $800 - whats the Qld TAFE going to charge you ?

Approx 10 weeks Approx 3-4 hours per week - havent got the exact numbers handy.

Bill

[Kraehe]

Hello Bill,

They couldn't tell me a price as yet. But hopefully an expression of interest is not binding... :o

D.

[TheNutter]

A little under $400 at SA tafe.

Ian

[Gavin Newman]

A little under $400 at SA tafe.

Ian

At one stage in SA it was free under the Skills For All program and once you'd done the set projects (which took around 5 weeks) you could make whatever you liked. There were a number of people who intentionally "failed" the course in order to be able to repeat it a number of times to get access to the heavy machinery.

As far as I'm aware the program is still running in SA.

[AMofQ]

Hi Guys,

TAFE (SkillsTech) is planning to run a course in manual lathe and milling machine use at the Acacia Ridge campus sometime in February. I gather that whether the course actually runs depends on how much interest it gets.

A friend and I have put our names on the Expressions of Interest list. I'm hoping others will be interested too. If so, please contact SkillsTech to register your interest ([email protected]). I'd suggest you do so now (or very soon). :)

Regards,

Darren.

hi Darren

i know this is well after your original post but if TAFE is still planning that course I would be willing (at a reasonable price)

cheers

Andrew

[Grahame Collins]

In the eighties we tried to get courses for advanced (code) welding going at Tafe. I personally went to the local Tafe and sought out the teachers and then spoke to the Director of the college.I was assured that they could run a post trade advanced welding course.They did the usual stuff and took my name and details and said it would depend upon expressions of interest . Three months later I chased them again and Tafe said no can do -three names were not enough expressions of interest.

It appeared to me that the TAFE was not advertising for the expressions of interest.
As the, then secretary for the local Welding Institute of Australia branch, I was in a position to know the facts.In a town like Gladstone (Qld.) that was booming there was many places that boilermakers with coded qualifications would find ample employment. I took upon myself to put a personal ad in the local paper outlining the facts and for those interested to call the Tafe and register their names.Subsequently with the names I took ,there were enough numbers to fill two courses and then some.

If there's no discernible no action on the part of Qld TAFE - remember they are crying poor along with the rest of the Govt , Departments-Trying to save money they might place ads in fairly obscure( but cheap to advertise) places. Place and ad in the free trading posts, on the local supermarket notice boards and those social media where you feel you might get some names.

As far as fees go this has to be user funded and will be fairly costly in some peoples opinion.

TAFE had a weird formula for charging for courses -Their Business Development Units had a say( and may well still have a say) in how the courses are charged out. Usually a course would run 12 weeks at 3 hrs per night. 36 hours . Say you were charged $600 that is less than $17 per hour- dirt cheap.

You may be paying a proportion of course fees for a myriad of TAFE connected uses, none of which will be used by those in the course. You can expect that wages and costs of material,power costs, and maintenance of machines are charged for.There were also a heap of other fees which covered library,the cost of the car fleet,room booking and god knows what else that people on night courses did not pay in the past.

I can't say what the final fee structure may be, but you will be better armed to deal with it and the expressions of interests you may have to answer questions if you are aware of what might be going on .I would be keeping my own records of expressions of interest to compare them against what Tafe/skill tech tells you.

Lastly don't take the above as all gospel- as things might have changed for the better since I last worked for TAFE. I would be asking lots of questions re fee structures.

Also be aware that TAFE may set pre requisites for this course - so completion of previous modules in safety and basic WH&S may be obligatory and the extra costs may kill off interest.

Let us all know how you went if the course goes ahead.

Cheers
Grahame