A visit from the Hon. Gayle Tierney, Minister for Skills and TAFE and Minister for Regional Development last week marked the official opening of the SuniTAFE Nexus Space. 

Minister Tierney visited the Mildura campus on Wednesday 11 October for a tour, morning tea, and ribbon cutting ceremony to officially open the new space. 

Students, teachers, SuniTAFE Board Directors, and external stakeholders were invited to the event. They were given the opportunity to share their stories with Minister Tierney and discuss their connections to the TAFE sector. 

“The Allan Labor Government is proud to have invested in this beautiful space, which will not only deliver better facilities for students and staff but also provide a space where SuniTAFE and the community can connect,” Minister for Skills and TAFE Gayle Tierney said in a media release last week.

SuniTAFE Chief Executive Officer Brett Millington was happy to welcome Minister Tierney to campus and open the new facility.   

“We are very grateful for the support of the Minister and the State Government in delivering this space which enables us to also showcase our students’ efforts and celebrate their successes,” Mr Millington said. 
“The students and staff at SuniTAFE are delighted to have this great new activation space as a welcoming point to our Mildura Campus.” 

“Not only does it help serve a functional purpose of displaying the training opportunities that exist here, it also draws people to the Skills and Jobs Centre and the potential careers that could be on offer from studying at TAFE.”

The Nexus was developed thanks to $1.6 million in funding from the Victorian Government. It involved an entire overhaul of the main SuniTAFE building. 

Prior to these renovations, visitors to SuniTAFE were greeted by a hallway of administrative offices when they walked through the front doors of the Institute. 

Now, those same front doors lead to a bright, modern, and open-plan engagement space named The Nexus. 
The administrative offices were relocated upstairs, so that the main entrance could be more welcoming and, most importantly, student-centred. 

The new space was first opened to the public in May 2023, after nearly two years of planning and construction.
The Nexus includes an exhibit space, an IT hub, a chillout zone, and an updated Café. 

It is also the new home of the Skills and Jobs Centre, placing them in a central location to offer their services to even more members of the public. 

The name ‘Nexus’ was chosen for its definition, meaning a connection or focal point. To be at the nexus of something is to be right in the middle of it, like standing in the middle of an intersection.

This is the intended purpose of the Nexus space, to provide a meeting point for the Institute to come together. 
The space has lived up to its name since it was completed, with Careers Open Day, R U OK? Day, and various internal staff events being hosted in the Nexus over recent months. 

Moving forward, the space will continue to be used to display state-of-the-art equipment, highlight student achievements, and run training sessions. 

Click here to read more SuniTAFE news. 

Click here to read the Victorian Government media release.