ABC News 19 October 2015
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The former Swinburne TAFE campus at Lilydale, in Melbourne’s outer-east, will reopen next year, three years after it closed due to funding cuts by the former Victorian government.
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The campus was forced to close following $300 million of cuts made to the wider sector by the former Baillieu government, which argued at the time that spending had to be reined in.
A new deal has been reached with Box Hill Institute to reopen the TAFE, which will offer vocational and higher education courses from 2016.
The Andrews Government said the Lilydale Campus would also be home to one of 10 “tech schools”, providing vocational training to high school students alongside their regular studies.
It will also feature a childcare centre, bio security centre and research centre and work in partnership with Deakin University and William Angliss Institute, the Government said.
Skills minister Steve Herbert described the reopened institution as an exciting new partnership that will transform the way education is delivered in the Yarra Valley.
It brings together schools, TAFEs and Universities to meet the needs of the Yarra Valley community so they can get the skills needed to get the jobs they want.
Norman Gray from the Box Hill Institute said it would be “a successful, vibrant campus”.
We’ve worked out that we can make this campus financially sustainable within two to three years, as we grow the numbers. We’re looking not just east from here into the Yarra Valley, there’s a whole catchment west as well, within the footprint.
We’re looking not just east from here into the Yarra Valley, there’s a whole catchment west as well, within the footprint.