Arguably the greatest obstacle with distance education is the quality of education is often diminished due to a lack of instructor interaction and supervised, hands-on training. Even though courses like business, finance and information technology can be studied online with no loss of educational quality, courses that require more practical, hands-on learning have proven to be impractical and ineffective.

Until now.

Modern learning closer to home

Scattered across thirteen locations throughout regional New South Wales, TAFE NSW’s Connected Learning Centres (or CLC’s) are state-of-the-art facilities providing regional areas with greater access to skills training and employment outcomes to the people within the local community. They are shining beacons of technologically driven education, as well as a great source of pride and inspiration for the communities of which they support.

With access to the digitally enabled facilities, capable of reflecting real-world work and social environments, without having to travel as far, you can now enrol in a greater range of learning and course options, including the most in-demand courses linked to job outcomes.

Connected Learning Centres complement and add value to the courses currently on offer at TAFE NSW by providing regional communities with a range of diverse courses like web technology, wool classing, event management, early childhood education, cyber security, civil construction, agribusiness and information, digital media and technology.

So far TAFE NSW has built learning centres in Bega, Bourke, Coonabarabran, Corowa, Deniliquin, Glen Innes, Grenfell, Murwillumbah, Narrandera, Quirindi, Singleton, Tenterfield and Yamba, with more CLCs proposed for other regions. There are also more Learning Centres proposed for other regions.

Local training for local jobs

The CLC’s help provide the various communities with access to digitally-enabled technologies, such as simulations and virtual reality experiences, that allow you to study a greater number of courses and study options to be offered locally.

Before, if you wanted to study, you had to leave your local area and head to the larger cities. Now, the Connected Learning Centres allow TAFE NSW to now offer you a wider range of choices, more accessible and practical training, as well as flexible learning with better access to teachers and support services. This means that you don’t have to spend hours and hours driving hundreds of kilometers to receive a modern education to earn a recognised qualification.

If you live remotely, now you don’t have to travel (or travel as far) to be able to study the courses you want. This presents all rural and regionally-based people with a greater choice of careers than would otherwise have been available to them.

Keeping people in regional towns means that their families can remain in regional towns. This protects money from leaving region towns, helping to boost local schools and businesses. Helping to educate people as close to home as possible also increases the possibility that those people are able to find work locally, or even provide them with the potential to start their own small business within their community.

With the TAFE NSW Connected Learning Centres constantly evolving, through upgrades and expansions to meet future industry standards, people living in remote areas of New South Wales will have fewer and fewer barriers to education, and more and more opportunity to gain the skills needed to support jobs in their local regions

Visit your local CLC