Award-winning chef Leuwin Andrew says TAFE SA training is wholly inadequate

AWARD-winning student and apprentice chef Leuwin Andrew has concerns the quality of TAFE SA training is wholly inadequate.

TAFE SA student Leuwin Andrew, who is studying Certificate III in Commercial Cookery, says TAFE courses are inadequate. Photo: Naomi Jellicoe

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AWARD-winning student and apprentice chef Leuwin Andrew has concerns the quality of TAFE SA training is wholly inadequate.

The 19-year-old still has a year left to complete of his Certificate III in Commercial Cookery — one of the 16 TAFE SA courses recently found to be substandard by the Australian Skills Quality Authority.

Last year, Mr Andrew was named school-based apprentice of the year in the Australian Training Awards, but now the future of his course hangs in the balance.

“No one has come to me and said that (what the future is for the course), it’s all speculation at this point,” he said.

Mr Andrew said he received hands-on training during the course but the quality of lecturers was questionable.

“The standards of how TAFE chose their lecturers is lower than that of higher education,” he said.

He wants an overhaul to the funding and regulation of the TAFE education system.

“It’s the regulation of the whole VET system as well,” Mr Andrew said.

“It (the course) focuses on the end product where I think universities focus on the journey.”

In the ASQA report revealed on Monday, the Certificate III in Commercial Cookery course was criticised for not proving students had been exposed to “sufficient practical training” or had the opportunity to put their training into a simulated kitchen environment.

The course is no longer accepting new enrolments.