Hi
My name is Tony O'Donnell, I am a course coordinator in Industrial Sciences at Box Hill TAFE. I use the Chemical and Hydrocarbons package for training and assessing people working in the industry. Since it started in the early nineties the package has evolved and this year it changes from PMA02 to PMA08.

Now while I believe it is a good broad spectrum package for industry I believe industry is changing rapidly and within the four years that the package operates and is ready for renewal (2012) the world will have changed more than at any stage in the past.

I think that industry will become more devolved and more available to grass roots development. There are lots of other areas I would include in this as well as biofuels ( rapid fabricating, energy, bioplastics to name a few)

I look forward to these developments and hope that organisations like TAFE colleges can develop standard of training that can respond to this.

My main reason for writing here is to open the door for feedback from people involved as devotees, back yard tinkerers, future entrepreneurs, or academics say how you think the education and training sector should be responding to the challenges and changes within this sector.

I would like to see a wide group of units of a training package which might be available covering a broad area of alternative technologies to support change in a safe and informed way.

I look forward to any ideas on this topic

tony O'Donnell

Tony, check your personal messages.