THE former Kenmore Hospital site will soon be a training-ground for international students, with owner Lila Chan (director of LAJC Energy Pty Ltd) signing a deal with TAFE Illawarra on Monday afternoon.
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The Chinese businesswoman has an agreement with Sichuan University, which will see 15 Aged Care/English Language students studying in Goulburn before the end of the year.
She hopes to develop this relationship further and, overtime, steadily increase the number of students.
Due to the size of its population, China has a shortage of tertiary education positions available. As a result, major universities outsource some of their students to other countries, with hundreds of students being sent to Canada and the United States each year. It is that market Ms Chan hopes to capitalise on.
Mayor Geoff Kettle believes the exchange will be good for the city.
“The more people that come to work, play and stay in Goulburn, it will have a flow on effect for the local economy,” he explained.
He said the students would shop with local retailers, eat in local restaurants and help promote the city internationally by telling their friends and family back home about their experiences.
The Mayor also said Council staff had worked closely with Ms Chan’s company to ensure she complied with all regulations and so that her vision could become a reality.
The business woman has been working on the proposal for close to two and a half years now and has renovated and restored a number of the heritage buildings, including the old pharmacy building and the staff development building.
When the students arrive, they will live on campus and study at both Kenmore and TAFE.
“At the moment we are housing people in the old nursing quarters but as we get more we will fix up one of the other buildings for them,” Ms Chan explained.
While she was not prepared to speculate on how many students would eventually flow from China, she said it would depend upon skills needed in the pupils’ homeland and cooperation between Australian and Chinese educators.
TAFE Illawarra institute director Dianne Murray said we were very lucky to receive international students in regional Australia and hoped this cultural exchange would be the beginning of a long and successful relationship.
“Today is all about first steps and big opportunities,” she said.
Ms Chan also confirmed to the Post that in the future there would be opportunities for regular TAFE students to study at Kenmore.
