Southern Queensland Institute of TAFE

TAFE Queensland South West empowers individuals, industry, and communities to achieve their career and business goals. TAFE Queensland is the largest and most experienced provider of further education and training in Queensland offering practical, industry-relevant training to over 180,000 students annually, across more than 500 program areas. On 1 July 2013, TAFE Queensland was established as an independent statutory body under the TAFE Queensland Act 2013.

We've come a long way since our humble beginnings. In 1882 on September 4, we started with only a dozen students in the garret of the North Brisbane School of Arts for a class in mechanical drawing. In the same year, we expanded our course offering to include geology, bookkeeping, French, German and the history of the British Empire. Prior to this, post-school education was expensive and generally reserved for the wealthy. Technical colleges gave a greater number of individuals access to the skills they needed to participate in the workforce.