Learning from home: Hair dressing, panel beating and construction in COVID world
Connected learning opens doors for regional students and offers more flexibility for students learning at TAFE NSW.
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TRADE students from across the state are honing their skills in hairdressing, panel beating, carpentry and more – right from their own backyards and garages.
With COVID-19 restrictions pushing educators to adapt how they deliver their classes – TAFE has put the power in the hands of the students, with an increasing trend of “connected learning”.
And experts say as NSW heads into the recovery phase of the pandemic, learning through webinars, Skype sessions and at home workshops could become the new norm.
TAFE regional general manager Susie George said teachers and students had taken to doing workshops over video conferencing, carrying out practical learning in their garages and learning trade from education videos during the restrictions.
“The COVID pandemic forced us to change and we have to look at things differently. Our teachers uploaded videos of all sorts of different things so people could see step by step different practical activities,” Ms George told The Daily Telegraph.
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“We have had students actually request that their classes continue like that. One example is a student in Certificate Four of Construction. Some of those students work for state-based employers who get sent around the state on different infrastructure projects.
“That doesn’t need to mean that they risk their learning for a month. Also, during COVID our more mature cohort had children who were home from school. Online learning gave them the flexibility to be able to balance things on the home front and continue their learning engagement.”
Ms George said for the practical side of learning, students were practising hairdressing skills on at-home models or taking home construction flat packs to assemble in their own garages to be assessed on.
Panel beating teacher Trudy Camilleri said the new changes also opened doors for regional students who could not always attend classes in person.
“It has definitely provided flexibility especially with employers since it gives (students) the opportunity to stay at work and to come online only for a two-hour block,” she said.
“With our students from Canberra, it saves them coming up, we can teach them online until they actually need to come up to Sydney. We have students from the country who do the same thing.”
Panel beating student Radwan Dandan said new modes of learning allowed him to balance his work at a smash repairs business with his studies.
“When I’m at work I can take a couple of hours off and do the class. I work in a family-owned business so taking two or three hours off instead of a whole day was very helpful,” he said.
“I’m lucky since I get to do the more hands on work here (at work). I wouldn’t mind doing online as long as we get the hands-on stuff too.”