16 April 2014
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Advance and Gipps TAFE to merge with a view to being “integrated” into Federation University
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The Victorian minister for higher education and skills, Nick Wakeling, has announced the formation of Federation Training 
Institute, which will be a new TAFE Institute in Gippsland, out of the merger of Advance TAFE and GippsTAFE, the two existing TAFEs in the region .
It is envisaged that Federation Training would be integrated into Federation University Australia from 1 January 2016.
FedU vice-chancellor David Battersby says that the university council has indicated that it would approve the full integration of Federation Training into FedUni following a successful amalgamation of the two existing TAFE Institutes into Federation Training:I
Our efforts over the next 18 months will be fully devoted to the further development of FedUni and by 2016 we would expect to be a position to look at the integration of a fully operational and successful Federation Training into the University.
Battersby says the development of Federation Training Institute has the support of many Gippsland educators and stakeholders and it builds on the strong relationship the University already has with the two existing TAFE Institutes in Gippsland.
A partnership of some kind between the three parties has been on the cards for a number of months, although a merger of the two TAFEs and takeover by FedU is a recent development.
See
Advance & Gipps TAFEs to partner with Fed U
Committee for Wellington backs Gippsland TAFEs – Federation Uni partnership