Health training centre to double Tafe Student tally

6th July Sunshine Coast Daily 

by Nicole Fuge.

A $63 MILLION educational health facility in Kawana will double Sunshine Coast Institute of TAFE's student numbers in the first three years of operation.

The Sunshine Coast Health and Social Well-being Learning Precinct, built beside the new Sunshine Coast University public and private hospitals, will offer vocational education and training from certificate one to advanced diploma courses.

Sunshine Coast Institute of TAFE director Leeza Boyce said the project would offer 950 new full-time-equivalent student places within the first three years of operation, doubling current student numbers.

"The training of a significant number of workers for the Sunshine Coast's future health industry will have great economic value for the region," Ms Boyce said.

"Seven out of 10 people working in a hospital typically have vocational qualifications in anything from administration to nursing."

Ms Boyce said a recent $46.8 million contribution from the Federal Government would enable the precinct to open at the end of 2016, the same time as the Sunshine Coast University Hospital.

"This funding will allow us to fast-track this project, which we've spent the past five years planning and designing," she said.

The $61 million first stage of the project will be built using the federal funding.

It will deliver 10,000sq m of facilities, including classrooms, fitness training facilities and gym, and customer service centre.

The second and third stages will comprise student accommodation, a childcare centre and day spa.

"The TAFE is looking forward to establishing a presence to service the rapidly growing area on the southern end of the Sunshine Coast," Ms Boyce said.

"The natural place to do that strategically is in and around the hospital so we can service it directly.

"Our goal is to make sure we maximise the opportunity for local people to train here, work here, live here and play here - to capture those opportunities for our region."

The learning precinct was expected to generate more than 320 jobs during construction and make a large contribution to regional economic activity until 2025.

The precinct also will include a community space, funded by Sunshine Coast TAFE and its partners, that will house local health-related clinical and community programs and the University of the Sunshine Coast's node of the Cooperative

Research Centre for Young People, Wellbeing and Information Technology.