Institute Always On The Move
The Age
Monday August 21, 1995
LIKE many other Victorian colleges of Tafe, Barton Institute is constantly upgrading its facilities and adopting new ways to create and deliver its curriculums.
For example, the institute has recently unveiled new food- processing facilities and a new automotive training centre.
Another innovation is the new four-year engineering degree, which is fully articulated between Barton Institute and Deakin University. For the first two years, students do practical engineering training at the institute, such as shop-floor machine management, and receive a diploma at the end. The two final years study are done at Deakin and cover more theoretical areas, completing the full degree course.
In other cases, individual students arrange combinations of university and Tafe courses. Tiffany Conway, who has an arts degree from Monash University, is typical. She is studying for a marketing/Japanese diploma, a practical training that will help her to maximise her academic studies.
As the Beyond VCE 1996 course handbook shows, accredited, non-accredited and short courses are offered at both the Moorabbin and Richmond campuses, and at Richmond a novel ``Skills Supermarket" is also available.
This allows students to choose a course or courses from a range of automotive and fabrication modules, and to study at the pace and time that suits them.
David Lean, general manager marketing, says that in addition to the automotive and fabrication training courses at the Richmond campus, the institute has focused on the requirements of local Vietnamese and Greek students as part of a plan to widen the profile of courses there.
Surprisingly, more than 50 per cent of the 12,000 students who enrol at the institute's two campuses come into the mature- age bracket (those who have been away from the school system for a year or more), and a number of those are between 55 and 70.
For many of the mature-age and older students, recognition of prior learning, which assesses a person's life and work experience, formal and informal study, can give useful exemptions from some of the course subjects, saving the student time and fees.
The Victorian Government has established a uniform system of enrolment fees in Tafe, based on subject enrolment hours, with a top rate of $500. All students, except those who may claim concessions, must pay this when they enrol.
Among the arts, business, manufacturing, engineering, automotive, hospitality, health, language and literacy courses on offer for 1996 is a more unusual one.
The associate diploma of aviation (air transport pilot), to be run by the institute in association with the Australian College of Aviation, will provide training for a commercial pilot licence and additional skills geared to work in the aviation industry.
The 16-month intensive course is equivalent to a normal two-year full-time course. Course fees are $36,000 and applicants have to pass a medical examination and must have passed year 12 or equivalent, including maths and physics.
Selecting, studying and hopefully passing a course is not, of course, the end of the story. In most cases the point is to use the skills and knowledge gained, to upgrade a position at work or get a job.
In the past, students were left to work out for themselves how to go about selling their qualifications and skills in the job market. Barton has a graduate recruitment and information program (GRIP) to turn to. GRIP runs a series of seminars covering job-related issues such as resumes, interview skills, motivation, goal setting and assertiveness. A newsletter, The Vocational Vehicle, with articles dealing with employment is also put out by the institute's counselling and support services.
BARTON Institute of Tafe will hold an Ed Fest '95 open day on Wednesday and Thursday 30 and 31 August at the Edmund Barton Centre Congress Room, ground floor, 488 South Road, Moorabbin.
From 9am to 5pm on the first day and 9am to 9pm on the second day, the Moorabbin campus will throw open its doors.
There will be a number of display booths and information sessions as well as opportunities to observe and discuss specific details of courses, career paths, job opportunities, course enrolment and selection and VTAC application procedures and costs.
Interactive demonstrations involving a flight simulator, welding, CD-ROM, a talking robot and many other areas will also be available to visitors.
Institute staff will also be on hand to speak to year 10, 11 and 12 students about VCE subject requirements for Tafe courses.
Ample free parking on campus will be set aside for cars and buses.
© 1995 The Age