r/TAFE

I am doing a certificate 3 in business.

I am doing virtual classes, as the local TAFE offers nothing other than aged care or child care.

But I have found I have hated EVERY step of TAFE.

Online:

- to start off, we waste half an hour waiting for late people, and waiting for the teacher to fix technology... Again.

This is a waste of my time, people should be joining 10-15 minutes early, the teacher should be set up and ready to go.

I've nearly finished this segment and the teacher still doesn't know how to get her headphones to work.

- there isn't usually any useful information in these classes. We run through that answers after the due date, so those who didn't do it on time can copy her answers. The somehow takes 2 hours. The class is meant to only be 1 hour.

Quizzes:

- answers are case sensitive, so some answers start with a capital letter, some don't.

- Some of the answers are spelt incorrectly! How many hours I spent resubmitting the quiz until I got the required 100% was infuriating (ended up taking screen shots).

I brought this up at the next class... SHE KNEW ABOUT THE SPELLING MISTAKES! Said it had been there for years, but didn't bother to warn us about it.

Assessments:

- The only 'feedback' I get is crosses and ticks on assessments.

- There are no written notes or comments. I have to guess, what part they didn't like.

One I found out was that the logo was on the left of the page, she wanted it centred.

Website:

- Most links are outdated and don't work.

- It's extremely hard to find anything, I find it's not user friendly.

- They get frustrated that we can't find the obscure link somewhere within TAFE.

Or the one sentence on the government website, she wanted us to copy. It's a big website!

Hi, so I finally enrolled into the cert 3 individual support ageing. Its online. I'm just going through it and it looks like all the units semesters 1 and 2 have a component that requires some kind placement. The issue is I have been told by my RTO they only do placement during semester 2. Is this normal? And if it is then what does it mean for the units in semester 1 units that require placement?

I'm just trying to get my head around how it all works.

BTW I'm not with tafe qld I'm doing this with Key Institute, but I'm based in QLD.

The hands-on side of TAFE is one of the main reasons I’m considering it, especially getting actual experience instead of only learning things from a textbook. I’d like to hear how much that practical stuff carries over once you’re actually working in the industry, and whether it helped people feel more confident starting out.

If I talk to my head teacher or student services, will they let me drop down to part-time or transfer my remaining units to mixed-mode/online for the second half of the term? Or am I going to get hit with a "fail" grade for the classes I drop past the census date?

Has anybody else signed in to find they're no longer enrolled in any course? This same thing happened to me earlier this year. I don't fancy spending 2 months on the phone having them fix it again, nor do I want to quit.

Someone tell me I'm not alone in this particular brand of misfortune?

Hi everyone, in November my second visa will expire and I want to study for a carpentry cert. 3.

In my background, I have a high school diploma in architecture (Italy) and I had to stop with the study for family reasons.

I've spoken with an immigration agent and he told me to access through private collage (SAI, EVERTHOUGHT, MACALLAN , AILFE) because it has the same validity of TAFE.

but I actually want to learn the trade, the visa is a secondary thing!

Can someone please help me or have any info about private colleges and TAFE differences in terms of teaching?

Hi all!
I’m looking at doing an mature apprenticeship as a sparky as a career change.
I spoke with the local tafe who said

1. I don’t need to do a cert 2
2. I need to find my own employer before starting.
3. They won’t help find an employer at all.

I’m just wondering if any of this is true? Far as I’ve researched I have to do a cert 2 before starting.
And they are advertising that they help you find an employer…

But since tafe for electrical is free for over 25 (which I am)
Would I be able to do cert 2 electrical tafe free?

The local tafe have been shocking to ask questions and don’t seem to know anything

Now the kids are adults, Id like to go back to work.

What TAFE courses would you recommend? Are there free ones that are worthwhile?

How did you find the course? Im going through with it because I need a job. Im like 2 months in. The content is boring sometimes. How did you edit your resume to get a job in Aged care organisations. I don’t have a car or drivers license, and no first aid course done. Tips, help, would be appreciated. It’s Cert III, one of my friends she would do nursing afterwards. Thoughts?

Hi all, after dropping out of my apprenticeship and TAFE a few years ago, I'm researching apprentice retention in Australia and I'd really like to hear from TAFE teachers, RTO trainers/assessors or anyone who works directly with apprentices through their training.

I'm trying to understand what happens before an apprentice cancels or drops out.

From your experience:

• Can you usually tell when an apprentice is disengaging or having problems at work?
• What are the earliest signs you notice?
• If you're concerned about someone, what happens next?
• How much communication do you normally have with their employer or supervisor?
• Do you know if they're also receiving support from an apprenticeship provider/mentor?
• Are there things the employer knows that you wish you knew — or things you know that the employer probably doesn't?
• Have you ever seen an apprentice drop out where you think earlier intervention could realistically have changed the outcome?

I'm especially interested in how information moves between the apprentice, workplace and training provider when someone starts struggling.

I'm trying to properly understand how the current system works from the business side as I only have experience as the apprentice and for me it was quite fragmented.

Would really appreciate any insight.

I am just wondering if being on the disability pension would affect my ability to take advantage of fee free education?

I’m 45 with a background in sales/hospitality, and I really need to take some kind of career change seriously, so that I can eventually go back to work. I’m thinking of the cert 3 in legal studies offered at Southbank campus

I’m hindered by my inability to study online, or solely online I should say. Has anyone got any advice for someone taking their life seriously, late in life?

What are the most worthwhile TAFE courses?

Completed a cert four in a trade adjacent field and the practical skills are genuinely solid. But getting past the initial resume filter at certain employers feels like the qualification itself is the problem rather than anything about the capability behind it. Would love to know from people here who've come through TAFE whether they found employers who genuinely valued the qualification or whether it's always been a conversation you have to force rather than one that happens naturally.

Just wondering what rpl companies people recommend. I have 2 years experience, Thinking of going with “rpl it Australia” to get my cert 3, will enrol for cert 4 next year at my local tafe

I’m looking at doing a TAFE course and one thing I keep wondering about is how much of the course content actually sticks once you’re on the job. I don’t mean the obvious practical stuff, more the random assessments, theory and things that felt important at the time but maybe never came up again. For anyone who’s finished TAFE and been working in the field for a while, what ended up being genuinely useful?

Kind of a rant.

I just started my course a month ago and genuinely feel so weird being the youngest person in my class. Everyone’s 30+ and I just graduated high school last year.

I also feel like it’s majorly awkward for assessments and stuff, my course is mental health-related so there’s going to be roleplays and such. It’s probably the dumbest thing ever but I just can’t fathom approaching someone that’s likely double my age to ask “hey, can we awkwardly sit in a room together and read off a script?”.

I also just feel stupid compared to everyone else in my class, mainly because I know they’re more mature than me and almost definitely have more experience than me. I seem to be doing okay with assessments for the moment, but nonetheless, I feel out of place.

Of course I know everyone has a right to education and this is not me saying that mature students shouldn’t get the same opportunities as me (or vice versa), it just feels like it’s wrong or strange for me to be doing a Diploma rather than a Cert III or IV.

Oh well, my student loan debt will kill me before any of this will! Should make the most of it.

Idk, if there’s any recent high school graduates doing a diploma reading this, please tell me I’m not alone :)

Edit: Thank you for your replies everyone, I’m feeling much better about my decision!

Currently y12 sitting hsc (physics chem math eng bio). I would not say I am cream of the crop state rank student, but am somewhat gifted academically, that being I pick up things and manage to develop skills a lot more proficiently than others and generally don't spend a lot of time studying and maintain decent marks (this isn't to sound bragging it's just for context). Applied for mech engineering at unsw and science at macquarie, but I don't want to study. I lack motivation, and have pretty much no discipline. I hate sitting in class and prefer pracworks/experiments, I love learning but cannot at all study, and am very bad at retaining information or memorising content. Y12 has been awful, I hate the workload and constant exams and assignments, I hate putting in effort outside of class. I do research on topics I personally like, but enter a sort of mind block on topics I don't care for. Should I enter tafe and do mechanical trade? I like prac work, but am scared that I'll be worse off than for uni. Also, I come from a household that takes academia very seriously, and if I don't go straight after high school, I'll probably be kicked out. I think that I would want to go to uni sometime in my life, but I feel that tafe is more suitable for what I personally enjoy, and I can make money instead of going straight into a lot of debt. Advice is appreciated.

A few years ago , I had a career change at 37.
First I did the individual support cert 3 and have been an aged care carer which I honestly really love.

I also have completed the cert 4 community services in that time just for some for knowledge in the sector (and it was free)

I think I have come to recognise that I really enjoy the autonomy, and task driven work of caring / AIN but I would like to take it a step further and get into nursing .
I know I’m not going to become a millionaire, and I’m not ready to jump into another university degree.
I would like to hear some experiences from ENS, places you are working and what you thought of the diploma.