TAFE SA Tonsley Campus

Ms DIGANCE (Elder) (15:11): On Sunday 22 May this year during the evening news, Channel 7 ran a report citing claims regarding low enrolment numbers at TAFE SA Tonsley site. The report showed photos of empty classrooms at the site and machinery and equipment with 'almost no wear and tear' to support claims that the facility is underutilised. In addition, the live broadcast from the Tonsley site that evening observed that the campus was shut up and deserted. This is not surprising, given there are no classes or activities scheduled at this site on a Sunday evening.

For the record, there is a total of 20 non-educational corporate staff based at the Tonsley site and 170 education staff, supporting a wide variety of building and construction programs across 26 trades. Training offered from this site includes building and construction, carpentry and furnishing, furniture making, glass and glazing, electrical and renewable energy, electrotechnology and engineering, interior design and decoration, mining and exploration, civil construction, plumbing, bricklaying and plastering, gas fitting, painting and decorating, and signage.

I have spoken to many of those who attend this site and one young man who attends this campus to further his trade as a bricklayer has described to me that it is the most amazing complex and he feels very privileged to be there to learn from those who are experienced. He is in a class with many others. In addition, TAFE SA offers a range of short courses and accredited skill sets from this site including Work Safely in the Construction Industry, Work Safely at Heights, Operate Elevated Work Platforms, Low Voltage Rescue and Resuscitation, as well as general leisure courses in wellbeing and resilience, management and administration, and arts and design.

The first students began their studies at this site in January 2014 and TAFE SA has identified that some of the footage shown on that Sunday night was taken at the launch of the campus in 2014, hence classrooms and workshops appeared new and not used. Management at TAFE SA's Tonsley site are reviewing security tape to see if they can determine who has taken and provided the more recent video footage.

The structured nature of the training provided to apprentices from this facility means that students often attend blocks of educational training on campus and then return to their workplace to apply those skills. In addition to this, TAFE SA has mobile lecturers who deliver necessary skills to students within industry and workplaces to further support on-the-job training needs. The flexible nature of this educational format means that students are not always on campus five days a week. Contrary to the suggestions made in the report, student hours delivered at TAFE SA's Tonsley site have actually increased every year since opening, and student hours for the year to date are well above budget for each and every program offered at the campus.

TAFE SA's onsite enrolment figures for semester 1 this year so far to date show an 11 per cent increase in student enrolments in comparison with semester 1 in 2014. In 2014, TAFE SA delivered training to a total of 4,923 new and continuing students, delivering 689,128 training hours at this site. This compares with a total of 6,685 new and continuing students, delivering a total of 978,289 training hours in 2015.

In May 2016, TAFE SA hosted the Construction Industry Training Board's visit to the TAFE SA Tonsley site during which members of the board observed the high level of student activity on campus. The Onshore Petroleum Centre of Excellence is a unique partnership between the state government, Santos, Senex Energy, Beach Energy and TAFE SA. Established in 2011, it operates from the TAFE SA Tonsley site. The facility provides a fully immersive simulated oil and gas production environment for students. I visit this site quite often because it is actually in my electorate, and I would just like to put on record that I see many students at this site in many of the classrooms, plus queues at the cafes during their break time.