McGowan Government's Rebuilding our TAFEs Plan

28 July 2020

Today, I joined Premier Mark McGowan at Balga TAFE to announce the biggest capital works program in the history for TAFE campuses across WA, as part of the WA Recovery Plan.
 
The $229.2 million Rebuilding our TAFEs plan includes a $32 million upgrade to the North Metropolitan TAFE Balga Campus. 
 
The ageing Balga campus is set to receive a major upgrade with $32 million allocated to overhaul the campus that was originally constructed in the 1970s. A new multi storey building will replace the current 22 transportable classrooms to provide training in building and construction, community services, general education and Adult Migrant Education.
 
This record infrastructure spend will help rebuild WA’s training sector, support displaced workers, women and youth, and provide training for emerging skills needed in the community.
 
This massive investment follows the McGowan Government’s recent announcement that TAFE fees will be slashed by up to 72 per cent on an additional 39 high priority courses, and 15 free short courses will be available to assist students to up-skill for new jobs and provide pathways to full qualifications.
 
The McGowan Government’s Apprenticeship and Traineeship Re-engagement Incentive is proven to help keep apprentices and trainees in work. We are providing employers with one-off payments of $6,000 for hiring an apprentice and $3,000 for hiring a trainee, whose training contract was terminated on, or after, March 1, 2020 due to the economic downturn following COVID-19.
 
Rebuilding our TAFEs plan includes:
  • $167.4 million in capital works projects across Western Australia, including $32 million for Balga TAFE
  • Additional $25 million for free short courses to upskill thousands of Western Australians
  • $32 million for the expansion of the Lower fees, local skills program
  • $4.8 million for the Apprenticeship and Traineeship Re-engagement Incentive

This significant investment at Balga TAFE is an important investment for the future of our community - young people and people looking to reskill need to learn in modern facilities that appropriately set them up for their future careers in their trade.

By investing in infrastructure upgrades, we are also supporting local jobs and work in our community that will help boost our local economy.