Bright future set for St Joseph’s

By Ed Merrison
ST JOSEPH’S College is looking forward to a bright future for Ferntree Gully thanks to the Australian Technical College East Melbourne (ATCEM), set to open by the end of the year.
St Joseph’s principal Vin Feeney said school refurbishment work is already underway, while planning has begun on new facilities to be built for the ATCEM.
Refurbishments include converting and extending two existing trade training facilities to deliver the course in electrotechnology and cabinet making, while 1100 square metres of newly constructed buildings will be added to the campus.
“That will include a 700 square metre workshop, plus offices and classrooms for theory work, and other associated facilities,” Mr Feeney said.
The new buildings, due for completion in 2007, will aim to deliver a dramatically different, state-of-the-art seat of learning for the price of a factory.
“We’ve engaged architects for a 21st century building to encourage students to think in new ways.
“We’re not just giving them a factory, we’re giving them an inspirational building,” he said.
Mr Feeney said Knox City Council had been extremely helpful in offering planning advice to speed up the permit process, and cited further good fortune in the guise of a $100,000 Australian National Training Authority grant to help acquire equipment and specialist tools for the technical courses.
Mr Feeney said the high standards of the school extended beyond the facilities, with a highly expert executive manager and an electrotechnology trainer drafted from RMIT.
“We’ve been able to recruit outstanding staff and will be looking to install a world best product in the way we train skill-based applicants,” he said.
Mr Feeney said the assimilation of the ATCEM had been part of a positive trade-off between St Joseph’s and the Federal Government, with the school giving some of its own facilities as well as gaining new ones.
“I’m very mindful that the generosity of the Government is going to benefit St Joseph’s, but we got involved because we realised there was a local need.
“We wanted students to receive their training here rather than going off to TAFE,” he said.
In addition to sending more rounded and mature students into the workforce, Mr Feeney said the school would address areas of skill shortage that currently affected the region.
“For example, there is a shortage of domestic electricians in the area.
“If young people can receive training in the area, they don’t have to go to Box Hill or Chadstone; they are able to work in their locality and meet an economic need of the locality,” he said.