Leonie Hiscutt,Liberal Member for Montgomery
The Tasmanian Government recognises that agriculture is important to regional communities and to the state’s economy which is why we are investing in more training and boosting skills.
Tenders have been called for Stage 1 of a new TasTAFE Centre of Excellence in Agriculture to help meet demand for agricultural skills.
The Agricultural Training Centre of Excellence, at TasTAFE’s Freer Farm in Burnie, includes a new building to support the delivery of contemporary training to students with modern equipment and infrastructure that demonstrates the latest farming techniques and practices, coupled with a strong emphasis on technology.
The new building, designed by Tasmanian company Philp Lighton Architects, will cater for face-to-face and online learning as well as industry demonstrations and events.
It will include learning areas and breakout spaces, a meeting/conference area, exhibition space, a mudroom and staffrooms along with car parking.
This centre will provide the right training and workforce development to grow the sector and help address current skills shortages.
Along with the building, the overall $5 million Centre of Excellence project will also include irrigation, stockyards, effluent treatment and farm biosecurity and upgrades to farm operations machinery and equipment.
It will also include ICT enabling technology for the new learning centre building and farm machinery to support modern farming practices such as farm mapping and farm data analysis. The Centre is expected to be completed by mid-2022
This investment will enable the demonstration of current best practice, industry collaboration and increased learning resources in these areas to build skills for now and into the future.
The tender closes on November 3 and more information can be found at: www.tenders.tas.gov.au
