The institution has confirmed a number of organisations have deferred mental health placements - which students need to undertake to complete their qualifications - in the wake of pandemic restrictions.

It comes as an Ararat Hospital director says he remains confident the pandemic will not impact on its workforce numbers for the coming year.

Internal emails seen by the Ararat Advertiser show six of the TAFE's Diploma of Nursing Students were not expected to be allocated a Mental Health Placement as timetabled for September and October due to the disruption of the coronavirus pandemic.

"For those students who do have an upcoming mental health placement, be aware that COVID-19 may impact on that and be cancelled at short notice, again out of our control," one reads.

A Federation University spokeswoman told the Ararat Advertiser: "Federation TAFE is running practical clinical lab sessions to prepare students for work placements at Ballarat, Ararat and Wimmera campuses with COVIDSafe measures in place.

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"It is continuing with acute based placements with the support of local health providers across the western region.

"A number of organisations have deferred mental health placements due to COVID-19 restrictions. We are continuing to work with health providers for placement planning for late 2020 and early 2021."

East Grampians Health Service director of development and improvement Mario Santilli said a camp was among the recent placements to be cancelled.

"That was going to pick up some of the placement fallback for mental health," he said.

"From what I've heard we only had two or three students that were going to that.

"We have heard they are going to try and get people through by January, which will put back the graduation time and the time they can register with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency.

"We are planning to have an intake of graduate diploma students at the end of January, for those who are eligible for registration, then another intake in June so we can pick up that back end as well. We are counting on about 10 positions being available over that period of time."

The EGHS provides localised opportunities for people to study in Ararat, such as supplying classrooms, teachers and a practical lab for the nursing students.

The partnership with Federation University forms part of a two-year arrangement under the state government's Free TAFE initiative, designed to secure the region's nursing workforce.

Mr Santilli said at this stage, he did not expect the health service would experience a staff shortage, nor would it need to bring in healthcare workers from beyond the region to prevent a shortage.

Under the Victorian government's stage three restrictions, tertiary education institutions can continue to support clinical placements for students "if the necessary risk assessments have been undertaken, after discussion with clinical supervisors and healthcare facilities".

In Ballarat, Ballarat Health Services has made the decision to ban students from Melbourne unless they relocate to the city.

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