Ross Hepworth, Director of The Sunshine Coast Institute of Tafe

Sunshine Coast TAFE and the man steering the educational ship into the oceans of success

From its humble beginnings as a community college in the early 1980s, Sunshine Coast TAFE has become not only the premier provider of vocational education and training on the Sunshine Coast, but a highly successful business in its own right.

Institute Director Ross Hepworth says there are many elements involved in leading the team he refers to as his TAFE family.

“I see my role within this organisation as being to lead by example, successfully manage a profitable multi-million dollar business, provide a safe and happy working environment for our people and produce employable and happy graduates,” says Ross.

“I value the trust and respect I have earned from these people and want to ensure that each and every person follows their chosen career path, enjoys a successful work/life balance and looks forward to coming to work as much as I do.”

As the recipient of the highly coveted 2011 Large Training Provider of the Year award, Sunshine Coast TAFE has proven the excellence of its vocational education and training and the realisation of this team’s dream.  The institute was also recently named Australian Training Marketer of the Year at the Australian Training Marketing Association (ATMA) Awards, received a judges commendation at the 2011 Queensland Tourism Awards and won a Froggie for its initiatives in sustainability at the Sunshine Coast Environment Council Awards.

“Our vision is to be a business built on the customer experience and these awards are recognition of that and so much more,” says Ross.

“These awards are acknowledgement of the innovative, dedicated work undertaken by each and every member of our institute on a daily basis.”

It is not only the institute that has received recognition. Ross was named Professional Manager of the Year at Queensland’s most prestigious management awards, the Australian Institute of Management Excellence Awards.

“My approach to managing staff really is quite simple, I believe in the inherent good of people,” he says.

“My job then is to provide people with an opportunity to do their best and have them satisfied with the value exchange that takes place between the organisation and the individual.

“We do great things at Sunshine Coast TAFE and this is evidence of the high quality of our training, our staff expertise and our enviable reputation on a local, state, national and international level.”

Prime Minister Julia Gillard recently announced that Australia will provide $152 million to fund the four-year second phase of the Australia Pacific Technical College (APTC), a project in which Sunshine Coast TAFE plays a critical role.

The consortium of Sunshine Coast TAFE, Box Hill Institute and GRM International has implemented phase two of APTC which will continue helping thousands of people across the Pacific to learn new skills by delivering vocational training and improving regional and international employment and trade opportunities. 

Ross says he is honoured to continue this successful relationship with APTC, a project which was also announced as a finalist in the Premier’s Export Awards 2011.

“The achievements of the students have been nothing less than remarkable with some students setting up their own businesses or even gaining qualifications to teach,” he says.

As one of the largest employers and training organisations on the Sunshine Coast, Ross and his team are highly cognisant of the need to maintain the natural beauty of this region.

“We would like to be a leader in education for sustainability and sustainable operations and are incredibly proud to announce that we are the first educational institution in Australia to be certified carbon neutral under Low Carbon Australia’s Carbon Neutral Program,” Ross says.

“In order to achieve this vision we adopted a multi-disciplined, multi-facetted approach which recognises our unique role in the community by improving the institute’s operations, incorporating sustainable offerings and practices in our training programs, educating our staff and students and encouraging community engagement through our magnificent Sustainability Discovery Centre.

“I think the Dalai Lama encapsulated it best when he said, ‘As people alive today, we must consider future generations: a clean environment is a human right like any other. It is therefore part of our responsibility toward others to ensure that the world we pass on is as healthy, if not healthier, than we found it.’”