A rare opportunity has emerged for the Redlands to create and stamp itself as a centre of learning through tertiary education.
The announcement that the Australian Industry Trade College has named the Redlands as the location for its new education facility combined with TAFE Queensland confirming its commitment to the city amid rumour that its Alexandra Hills campus would close, is positive for a move into the realms of higher education.
The trade college is a major coup for the city and will provide local students in years 11 and 12 with access to trade training and senior education.
The college has a large and defined curriculum which allows students to complete their Certificate of Education while training full time as an school-based apprentice.
The announcement comes at a time when TAFE Queensland showed its support for the continued operation of the Alexandra Hills campus defining its "critical role" for education in the Redlands.
The TAFE board chairman Warren Tapp emphasised the status quo would not be maintained, but advanced with better engagement with employers and training tailored to growth industries.
Both will join the important learning facility that the University of Queensland and Mater Health Services have created with its Clinical School Redlands in Cleveland.
The challenge that now faces the Redlands is to grow these tertiary opportunities that have come our way.
A university for the Redlands has long been on the agenda of the Redland City Council and our local parliamentary representatives.
With some foresight, that agenda will take another step closer to reality with council considering the purchase of a parcel of land at Birkdale.
The 80ha bushland block is an environmental sanctuary and considered perfect for creating a tertiary learning facility in a natural Australiana setting.
The site, owned by the federal government, has been touted for years as ideal for a university, and now council has shown interest in its purchase.
The relentless single-minded focus on development as the vehicle for growth has over-shadowed other possibilities and tertiary options have only been talked about.
Now, however, a window of opportunity has emerged. Council and governments must partner in progressing this project, as the tertiary appeal of the Redlands is clearly being seen by others.
Fully functioning tertiary facilities for trade and academia will provide the next step for the private and public schools that have blossomed here in the past 20 years.
This is a chance for the Redlands to diversify; a chance to reinvent the city as a quality place of education and learning.
This opportunity cannot be allowed to pass by.
