Profile: Wayne Ketchen
New Mallee Regional Innovation Centre co-director and board member Wayne Ketchen wants to see the partnership between SuniTAFE and the Centre strengthen through increased project collaboration and knowledge sharing.
Wayne Ketchen.
With 15 years’ experience in the TAFE sector, Wayne relocated to Mildura from Geelong 18 months ago to join SuniTAFE as general manager of education delivery.
He replaced former SuniTAFE operations general manager David Harris last year as Centre co-director and on the steering board.
“Being new to the area, with no family connections here, it was great to come in with fresh eyes and broaden my understanding of the world, learning how industry works, how the community works, and about the strong connections the region has to agriculture and horticulture,” Wayne said.
It is such a welcoming community and it has been a really good journey, so I'm looking forward to the future and being active with the Mallee Regional Innovation Centre, as well as working closely with the Centre’s other partners and the other universities and organisations it connects with.
Wayne said he looks forward to seeing how those relationships can be mutually beneficial and opportunities for SuniTAFE to contribute more and share its knowledge and expertise.
“Our SMART Farm Campus on the outskirts of Mildura is where a lot of that connection happens, and we have spent a lot of capital there in the last few years to elevate the campus, and we will continue to do that,” he said.
“We are proud partners in the Centre’s research and demonstration projects that are set up at the farm, and we love having the university researchers come to visit because something I want to see more of is how we can operate together in that research space.”
MRIC Steering Board members Professor Ashley Franks, Professor Angus Webb, Professor Alastair Sloan, Professor Chris Pakes, SuniTAFE CEO Brett Millington and Wayne Ketchen with MRIC Strategic Advisory Panel chair Leonie Burrows and CEO Rebecca Wells.
Wayne said the Centre, as a partnership between the University of Melbourne, La Trobe University and SuniTAFE, was an opportunity to bring together the best of vocational education and the best of higher education and collaborate in the areas where both have strengths.
“What’s great is that it aligns with the university accord, which is about recognising the value that both TAFE and universities have in an education environment,” he said.
“We are all part of the same journey, working within slightly different contexts. Higher education is based on research and innovation, but they need a technical base to support that.
“What the researchers learn and develop often influences the training we implement to support industry in utilising the new innovation. Or if a researcher finds they need a certain piece of equipment or says the way of the future could look like ‘this’, TAFE is a great place to go to look at how you build it or how you frame a course around whatever that new direction might be.”
Read more about Wayne on the SuniTAFE website.