New Managing Director appointed for South Metropolitan TAFE

  • Darshi Ganeson appointed Managing Director of South Metropolitan TAFE
  • Five-year term commencing 23 January 2024

The Minister Assisting the Training and Workforce Development Minister, Hannah Beazley, is pleased to announce the appointment of Darshi Ganeson to the position of Managing Director at South Metropolitan TAFE (SM TAFE).

Ms Ganeson’s five-year term commences today, Tuesday, 23 January 2024, following her appointment by His Excellency the Honourable Chris Dawson AC APM, Governor of Western Australia.

In addition to her experience leading South Regional TAFE (SR TAFE), Ms Ganeson has previously held executive and management roles with Challenger Institute of Technology, and SM TAFE, including Executive Director Strategic Partnerships at SM TAFE.

Her career spans vocational education, business development, performance analysis, and econometrics, in both the public and private sectors nationally and internationally.

With SM TAFE instructing over 30,000 students per year via 12 campuses and 1,500 staff, Ms Ganeson’s experience working in vocational education and training will help to ensure SM TAFE’s continuing success.

Through engaging with key partners in the defence, resources and energy industries, Ms Ganeson has helped to uphold SM TAFE’s longstanding commitment to industry collaboration to prepare the future workforce with new innovative training programs.

During her three years leading SR TAFE, Ms Ganeson demonstrated a commitment to ensuring a responsive and future-focused college, including the realignment of training services to better position SR TAFE to respond to new and emerging opportunities for the benefit of WA students, who represent the current and future workforce.

Ms Ganeson holds a Bachelor of Economics (Honours) from the University of Western Australia, a Graduate Diploma in Computing from Curtin University and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. She was a non-executive Board Director of the Australian Maritime College, and a member of the Minister for Defence Issues’ WA Defence Advisory Council.

Ms Ganeson has been acting as SM TAFE’s interim leader since September 2023.

As stated by the Minister Assisting the Training and Workforce Development Minister Hannah Beazley:

“I would like to welcome Darshi Ganeson to the position of Managing Director of South Metropolitan TAFE.

“Ms Ganeson is known for her strong knowledge of vocational education and training and expertise in commercial operations. Her diverse experience will be invaluable to the role.

“With Ms Ganeson as its leader, SM TAFE is well positioned to keep providing quality training to Western Australians while growing and diversifying its offerings and capabilities to help meet local workforce needs.

“Ms Ganeson’s experience will help to ensure that SM TAFE students continue to access the quality training with strong links and relevance to industry that our TAFEs are known for providing.”

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