Education and Training Minister Sue Ellery announced details of the State Government's $25 million investment in new equipment for Western Australia's TAFEs at the Collie campus on 22 November.
TAFE colleges across WA will receive the equipment as part of a four-year program to upgrade and modernise their equipment to contemporary industry standards - helping students, apprentices and trainees become more job-ready.
South Regional TAFE will receive more than $1.1 million as part of Stage 1 of the TAFE Training Equipment Refresh Program.
The Collie campus will receive $670,000 to purchase a heavy vehicle simulator and automation training equipment.
The heavy vehicle driving simulator will equip students with simulated working conditions, allowing them to receive high quality training prior to driving large trucks on the road.
The new equipment at the Collie campus will support the delivery of the Heavy Vehicle Driving Operations Skill Set, adding more skilled workers to the essential transport industry to meet increased demand created by local infrastructure projects, including the Bunbury Outer Ring Road.
More than $380,000 will go towards automation equipment for the Albany campus, including industrial process automation simulated plant and a programmable logic controller system.
TAFE colleges identified areas of need based on local demand and emerging industry training needs.
The $25 million investment adds to the $184.3 million package for essential infrastructure upgrades across the TAFE colleges, which is currently underway.
Minister Ellery said:
"Our highly successful Lower fees, local skills initiative has seen a huge increase in people undertaking vocational education and training courses in WA.
"We want to make sure these people are learning on industry-standard equipment so they are immediately productive in the workplace.
"Western Australians can be assured that training delivered at WA TAFE colleges will be to industry standard, practice and quality."