Abstract
<jats:p>Student mental health across Australian tertiary education has been under sustained pressure since the COVID‑19 pandemic. Within the vocational education and training (VET) sector, Technical and Further Education (TAFE) institutes support highly diverse cohorts who are often at elevated risk of distress due to socio‑economic and structural barriers. This professional paper synthesises current evidence and practitioner insights to propose a pragmatic model that moves ‘beyond the therapy room’. This paper reviews recent national surveys and sector data on distress and non‑completion; outlines enabling frameworks; and presents a co-designed pilot study, the Neurodiversity Initiative, to improve engagement, retention, and workforce readiness among neurodivergent learners in VET. An implementation roadmap and evaluation framework are provided to support scalability across TAFEs of different sizes and contexts. The paper concludes with system‑level recommendations to embed inclusive, sustainable responses that meet the current Registered Training Organisation (RTO) standard guidelines for student wellbeing and improving education and employment outcomes for VET learners.</jats:p>