Education institute, Melbourne Polytechnic has opened its fourth Skills and Jobs Centre retail premises at Westfield Doncaster earlier this week.

Designed to provide a fully interactive experience that is facilitated by enrolment and career advisers, the Skills and Jobs Centre is equipped with state-of-the-art technology to help patrons navigate through the wide range of course information.

Each premises features an open floor plan with modern facilities, a barista, one of Melbourne Polytechnic’s hospitality students, who also demonstrates the skills taught by the institute.

The institute’s first storefront, at Northland in Preston, was opened by the Minister for Training and Skills Steve Herbert in December 2015. This was subsequently followed by two further premises opening in Westfield Plenty Valley and in Chapel Street, Prahran.

Westfield Doncaster was considered a key destination for prospective students for the inner north-east of Melbourne.

“It’s a landmark in the area, and a prime destination for shopping and entertainment, so we knew it was a key element in capturing our target audience,” says Danielle Horvath, director of student acquisition. “We’re really pleased to be part of the Westfield community.”

The trading hours for each retail premises are consistent with each shopping centre’s trading hours.

The in-house Enrolment and Career Advisers can help enquirers with information about fees, enrolment process and course prerequisites. Prospective students are also able to enrol at the centre.

The Skills and Jobs Centres are a ‘key plank’ in Melbourne Polytechnic’s student acquisition strategy, which in turn is a key enabler for the corporate strategy.

The organisation said its experience to date has shown ‘interesting trends’ including a significant proportion of enquiries into the stores come from family members of prospective students. The educator asserted that this is a customer segment that is traditionally very influential in terms of the choices made by prospective students, especially school leavers. However, this influencer segment is also difficult to target via other promotional means, given the wide divergence in demographics.

Melbourne Polytechnic operates across six campuses and five specialist training centres throughout Melbourne. The institute delivers high quality vocational education in industry-standard facilities.

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