More than 3,400 Darling Downs residents enrolled in fee-free TAFE in the first year of the national program.
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More than 3,400 residents of the Toowoomba and Darling Downs region enrolled in Fee-Free TAFE qualifications in the first year of the national program, with construction trades, agriculture, and health support the three most popular qualification areas — reflecting the specific workforce needs of the region's growing construction and agribusiness sectors.
TAFE Queensland South West region delivered the majority of enrolments through its Toowoomba, Dalby, and Warwick campuses, with the Certificate III in Carpentry the highest-enrolled qualification — reflecting the extraordinary demand for building tradespeople across the Darling Downs as residential construction in Toowoomba and new agricultural processing facilities both compete for the same labour pool.
The agricultural qualifications enrolled through the program cover Certificate II and III in Agriculture and Horticulture, Certificate III in Meat Processing, and several short-course units in precision agriculture technology that are not available as standalone qualifications under the standard funding system. The precision agriculture units have been particularly popular with existing farm workers seeking to upskill in the digital tools being adopted across the region.
Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce chief executive Todd Rohl said the free TAFE program was meaningfully addressing the skills gap that had been identified as the single biggest constraint on business growth in the Darling Downs economy. He cited multiple chamber members who had enrolled staff in TAFE courses that had previously been declined by employers due to course cost. "Remove the cost barrier and people invest in skills. It's exactly what you'd expect," he said.
The federal government has confirmed the fee-free program will continue for a further two years with an expanded menu of qualifications in priority sectors.
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