Heathfield High School is proud to host the Piltarilla Skill Centre, a new $600,000 state-of-the-art, commercial kitchen training facility.

This much-needed facility provides high-level training opportunities for secondary students from all Government schools in the Hills/Murraylands region. In addition to Heathfield High School, the Hills/Murraylands Region includes Birdwood High School, Coomandook Area School, Karoonda Area School, Mannum High Schhol, Meningie Area School, Mount Barker High School, Murray Bridge High School, and Oakbank Area School. The Piltarilla Skill Centre is also available to students from the Independent schooling sector.

Training offered at the Piltarilla Skill Centre includes Certificate 1 and Certificate 2 in Hospitality (Kitchen Operations), along with Certificate 2 in Business. At this stage, approximately eighty students undertake either Certificate I or Certificate II courses each year, with the number of students expected to increase in future years.

All training courses lead to the attainment of Certificates from National Industry Training packages. At the same time, secondary students can achieve units towards their South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE), at both SACE Stage 1 (year 11), and SACE Stage 2 (year 12) level.

The existence of a local, state-of-the-art facility to provide quality training in food, hospitality and tourism will serve the needs of industry for appropriately and highly-qualified staff. There is substantial interest from secondary students wishing to pursue careers in this industry, and consequently a strong demand for this training.