Training Provider of the Year

Sponsored by NEC.

Winner: Charles Darwin University

CDU is building on its successes to further strengthen its position as the NT’s leading training provider.

Its significant footprint across the Territory enables CDU to respond to changing industry and student needs. Mobile learning units support training in more than 150 locations and existing and new facilities offer VET and higher education courses.

One of the university’s major strengths is the links between the VET and higher education spheres. The two sectors share lecturers in the areas of creative industries, IT and business, conservation and land management, financial services and health and community services. These links greatly assist pathways between VET and higher education qualifications. For example, approximately 20% of CDU VET students articulate to higher education qualifications, compared to a national articulation rate of 10%.

The university has a total of over 23,000 VET and higher education students, with VET delivered in over 150 locations across the Territory. It offers 220 VET qualifications, from Certificates I to IV and diploma courses. In 2014, the university delivered nearly 2.8 million training hours to some 12,500 students, apprentices and work-based trainees.

Runner up: Matrix on Board Training

Matrix on Board Training (MoBT) offers accredited and non-accredited training to money management workers, who are mainly employed by non-profit organisations to deliver financial literacy education to Aboriginal people in remote areas. MoBT provides training and support in community services and financial literacy.

It takes a holistic approach to training, helping students not only gain competency in course requirements but also to build capacity and become more effective in their workplace. Training is delivered in Certificate I in Work Preparation (Community Services) and Certificate III in Community Services Work that includes units of competency in financial literacy.

MoBT understands the challenges faced by Aboriginal students living and working in remote areas who are undertaking training. These are taken into account when training is delivered by making sure there are culturally appropriate supports, that face-to-face mentoring is available whenever possible, and that learnings relate back to students’ real world experiences.

MoBT’s vision is to build capacity in Aboriginal families, especially those with high needs and living in remote communities, through delivering quality training in financial and community services.