Holmesglen Institute

The problem

Holmesglen Institute is one of Victoria's leading government-owned TAFE providers, delivering vocational education, apprenticeships, diplomas, and degree-level training to school leavers, mature-age learners, and industry professionals.

With a strong focus on trade skills, in-demand industries, and Free TAFE programs, Holmesglen has built a reputation for practical, employment-focused education, and a graduate cohort that's ready to work.

The approach

Because this was uncharted territory, we started with discovery. We ran a structured workshop with a broad group of stakeholders: Holmesglen program staff, graduating students, and potential employers, to understand what each group actually needed, what processes would need to support the platform's operation, and critically, how to make the service compelling enough that local businesses would use it.

That last question turned out to be the hardest. Attracting employers to a brand-new service with no track record required more than a good website. We consulted closely with Holmesglen to shape a marketing approach alongside the platform itself, ensuring the product and its go-to-market strategy were built together rather than as an afterthought.

The solution

The outcome was an online portal built around a personalised matching service. Holmesglen staff work with each student through the portal to build a detailed candidate profile: skills, interests, and strengths. Employers register their hiring needs. Holmesglen then matches suitable candidates to each opportunity and provides employers with direct links to relevant profiles. Simple, structured, and human at every step.

The results

Despite being a first-of-its-kind initiative operating within a defined government program, the platform delivered meaningful, measurable outcomes:

Those numbers represent a new pathway into employment for students who might otherwise have been overlooked, and a practical solution for businesses that needed good people.