New Course Fees for 2011
Fees for 2011 for most Certificate of Competency courses have just increased dramatically.
State funded places have been declining for the past few years and budgets are tightening both at a State and Commonwealth level.
This year some funded places have been cut considerably resulting in fees rising anywhere between 10% and 250%.
STT is not applying the full costs of lost State subsidies in 2011 but we may not have the ability to offset fees against other program surpluses in the future.
At STT we feel that worse may be to come and that in 2012 there may be even less money around for training forcing fees up again.
Whilst Skills Tasmania has listened to the argument and given us some additional funds, the solution is most likely to be found at a political level!
Industry needs to persuade the Tasmanian Government that their training needs should be funded and why. The longer this takes the more you will pay!
Hopefully a delegation from Industry representing wild-catch, aquaculture and maritime tourism will present their case in the very near future. Watch this Space.
For a full list of fees and charges check out our website at; www.seafoodtrainingtas.com.au or call 0362336442 for the latest course book.

Certificate of Competency Courses
Demand to date is strong with most courses filling. We have places on the next MED3 and Master 5 intakes and the St Helens and Smithton Coxswain courses in June.

Historical demand for maritime training and traineeships
The following graphs show how demand for licensing courses and traineeships have trended over recent years.

STT Trainees from 2001 to 2010


Training demand for Maritime Training from 2006 to 2010




TSQAP Workshop
Ali Turnbull and Ray Brown from the Tasmanian Shellfish Quality Assurance Program ran a very successful water quality and sampling workshop at STT for oyster farmers who were looking at conducting their own water sampling. The workshop took the farmers through the water quality sampling requirements for TSQAP and involved a lot of hands on practical demonstrations. Another course will be run later in the year for farmers who did not attend this workshop but would like to gain the necessary skills.

Ray brown demonstrating how to use a salinity meter at a recent TSQAP sampling workshop held for oyster farmers at STT.



Traineeships
Remember that if you have completed a Certificate II or III qualification the State will fund you into the next level as long as you progress within one year.
So those of you that have just completed or are about to complete a Certificate III in SFI Aquaculture think about the next level.


Aaron Jager undertaking his Certificate IV Traineeship at Huon Aquaculture.


For licensing and short course enquiries call Helen, Karyn, or Maddy and for Traineeships call Matt or James on 0362336442