THE need to provide industry knowledge to assist in the management and running of golf clubs has led to the creation of a unique institute in Joondalup, the Australian Institute of Golf Management.
After five years AIGM has formed its own alumni, an event celebrated by an inaugural golf event recently.
Institute graduates can either finish with a TAFE Certificate 4 or diploma equivalent.
With that they can get into the business course at the Edith Cowan University with an eight-unit exemption, or the Curtin Bachelor of Commerce Program with a four-unit exemption.
The institute’s course consists of five core units and three electives. Besides the academic courses there are practical golf techniques to learn.
Students train under professionals from the David Milne Golf Academy at the Joondalup Country Club.
AIGM head lecturer Judy Tan said the institute’s courses were designed as a pathway to help students further their academic life. She said it also provided golf courses with industry-savvy people.
“We found that employers out there wanted people with skills related to the golf industry,” Ms Tan said. “They found that many of their workers were people trained in hospitality but not in the golf course business.”
Mr Milne said the course was focused on the management side of the golf business.
“However, those who take the course want to look at the playing side of the game too,” he said.
Besides going on to university, graduates have the ability to go into the golf industry in a variety of levels, such as golf course management or at the retail level.
As part of the course students are required to go to golf clubs and train in different areas of that club’s business, such as the cart hire shop, the club fitting room, the front desk and its hospitality spaces.
While the course does not provide an automatic pathway to the Professional Golf Association academy, Ms Tan said students could opt to apply for entry after they had graduated.
Some students have already taken that option.
Industry sources say the golf academy’s offerings are handy to what the industry needs but are not as exacting as those required by the PGA.
They say the institute’s courses have also proved very popular with students from South-East Asia, partly because of the golf tie-in and partly because the course provides an alternate pathway to two of WA’s universities.
