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A $2.9 million boost to Longreach State High School's hospitality trade training centre will become a reality, giving students across the region the skills they need for a career post-school.
Education Minister Grace Grace visited the school today and met with hospitality students ahead of regional Cabinet.
"Longreach State High School has a fantastic hospitality training program which includes the well-known mobile commercial training kitchen, the Big Red Truck," Ms Grace said.
"The truck is 10 years old now and needs some TLC.
"This money will help fund the truck's registration and maintenance into the future and the school's current kitchen facilities are upgraded.
"The hospitality trade training centre delivers hospitality training to students at Longreach State High School, as well as Barcaldine, Aramac, Winton, and Blackall State Schools.
"These refurbished facilities will give our budding chefs, caterers and bar managers a real taste of what it's like to work in an industrial-standard workplace.
"By investing in projects like these, we're also supporting local jobs in the Longreach community."
Longreach State High School Principal Vanessa Moller said the $2.9 million commitment meant so much to the school community.
"The refurbishment of our kitchens will create a commercial kitchen and dining facility for our cluster of schools – Barcaldine, Aramac, Winton and Blackall State Schools," Ms Moller said.
"We already host a lot of training events for our cluster so these new facilities will give our students access to real-world hospitality and catering experiences."
Ms Grace said the Palaszczuk Government was no stranger to investing in educational facilities in the bush.
"Across the central west region, we're investing around $7 million going forward, with $39 million injected into the area since 2015," Ms Grace said.
"At the moment, tradies are working hard to install more than 2,500 solar panels on four state school rooftops.
"Panels are being installed at Longreach State School, Longreach State High, the Longreach School of Distance Education and Barcaldine State School.
"By installing solar panels on these school rooftops, we're chipping away at our target to reach 50% renewable energy target in Queensland by 2030."
Ms Grace said the Palaszczuk Government was committed to providing quality education facilities to schools in all corners of the state.
"COVID-19 hasn't stopped local tradies from progressing multiple school infrastructure projects across Queensland including these Longreach projects," Ms Grace said.
"At a time when job creation has never been more important, our Government continues to support industry while improving our schools.
"During 2020–21, we are delivering an overall infrastructure investment portfolio valued at more than $1.9 billion, driving the Queensland economy by supporting almost 4800 jobs."
