Arte-non-Vi

Tag: Young Australians

  • Gippsland Youth Commitment Online

    Inspiring Connections.

    GYC
    Gippsland Youth Services Directory

    It is very appropriate in Youth Week 2014 that a group in Gippsland, Victoria, the “Gippsland Youth Commitment“, has developed an online architecture and business model that is designed to get agencies and organisations to work collaboratively by sharing online resources.. for the sole purpose of improving outcomes for young-people.

    Yes, there are many such initiatives.

    What makes this different is that it has been led from the “ground-up” by the Baw Baw Latrobe Local Learning and Employment Network, staff within the DEECD in Gippsland and their partners across many service providers and organisations in Gippsland.

    This is not a trivial thing.

    Gippsland Youth Services DirectoryThe project has developed an online youth services directory that will function on any mobile device, designed particularly for young people looking for services and support within Gippsland.

    This is really just the tip-of-the-iceberg.

    The system also has as a “back-end” management system that is designed for detailed sharing between organisations working to provide youth services in Gippsland. The business model and architecture means it really is “sustainable”, [an often over-used and misrepresented term.]

    This is the key, Combining local leadership and a budget model that understands the financial and technical constraints of rural and regional communities….

    The most recent report by the Victorian Auditor-General on Access to Education for Rural Students highlights the glaring challenges when it comes to deploying Government Policy on a place-based or customised basis. Readers of this blog will know my views on evidence-based-planning.

    This initiative is one of a few that I am aware of that can genuinely address the challenges in the Auditor-General’s report in a positive, meaningful and cost-effective way.

    Caveat/Disclosure

    I have assisted in the development and deployment of this project.

    Links

  • The Pride of Broadford

    Words and Actions…. A rare commodity..

    I was privileged to attend the Broadford Secondary College awards night [ last night, December 18th] and witness the launch of the Delaney Family Endowment for Year 12 students studying at Broadford Secondary College. This is a $20,000 Endowment in perpetuity.

    How simply the policy challenges facing the nation can be distilled in to an eloquent and most generous commitment by a family that simply wishes to see everyone have the opportunity to achieve, regardless of their personal circumstances.

    Such a genuine, humble and heartfelt commitment to an entire community will, I know, have an impact for many, many generations to come. This is philanthropy in its truest form.

    What a wonderful example for all communities and policy makers.

  • Collaboration = Skills = Opportunity

    For those living and working in rural areas, the importance of providing genuine pathways to skilled employment for local populations, particularly young-people, is paramount. We understand in great detail, the challenges of ageing rural populations and structural adjustments. This is more than just a “microcosm” of the challenges facing our national economy.

    Working in the field of skills development, labour markets and rural and regional planning, the nature of this model of collaboration and its result, has genuinely raised my interest and admiration.

    The genesis of this idea [among others] came about during a meeting of 11 School Councils in 2005.

    Northern Hub
    Northern Hub Seymour – CRTTC

    I have had the honour of attending the dual official opening[s] of the $AUD 11.3 Million dollar,  Central Ranges Trade Training Centre, a unique collaboration of nine Government and Catholic secondary schools spanning a potential student population of some 3,500 across the shires of Mitchell and Murrindindi and the City of Whittlesea.

    Whittlesea
    Southern Hub – Whittlesea

    I say “unique” with genuine intent. It is rare [at least in my 30 years of experience] to see a level of collaboration, governance and coordination, that sees a number of individual schools, TAFE Colleges [Goulburn Ovens and Kangan Batman],  Industry partners and a community-based planning network [Central Ranges LLEN]  agree to fore-go individual funding, to maximise and pool available funds to establish a distributed network of infrastructure and human resources to supply a quality and depth of training opportunity that is clearly greater than the some of its parts.

    Today in Seymour, the “Northern Hub” was officially opened by the Federal Minister for Skills and Training, The Honourable Brendan O’Connor and the Member for McEwen, Mr. Rob Mitchell. This completed the “bookend” of the opening of the Southern Hub, at Whittlesea Secondary College, just over a week ago. This complements the two other minor hubs, established and on-stream in 2012 at Alexandra Secondary College and Assumption College Kilmore.

    Seymour Northern Hub
    Central Ranges TTC – Northern Hub – Seymour

    In this expanded regional network, there are schools from the Government and Catholic sectors, their key leaders, school Principals, have chosen to take on a level of planning complexity and responsibility that is not easily reconciled with their “day-to-day” core-business, yet is clearly in the best interests of young people and employers throughout the region to gain access to training facilities and high-level qualifications in key areas of long-term skill-shortage.

    Engineering
    Engineering Students – Seymour

     

    Northern Hub - CRTTC
    Northern Hub – CRTTC

    Broadford Secondary College, as lead school in the consortium, coordinated and managed the five year project, yet received no capital investment. Seymour College and Whittlesea Secondary College, provided technical, programmatic and planning expertise and shared this with all schools and partners. This is what genuine leadership is, at the community level, these leaders have taken responsibility to build something for a region and the young people within it, well-beyond their individual school gates…

    The other partners, specialists, governments and individuals have all contributed, having recognised the depth of collaboration and commitment of this consortium. To also complete such a complex task on budget and ahead-of-time, certainly challenges the stereotypical view of the public sector.

    A genuine model of cluster-collaboration with concrete, long-term success. Congratulations to all involved.

     

    Links

    The Central Ranges Trade Training Centre Consortium

     

    Other Links

  • Skills, Gender and all that stuff….

    At a time when Gender equity is so prominent in much media coverage, both within Australia and across the Globe, it is also sobering to consider the structural challenges faced by girls entering the workforce and adult-hood for the first time here in Victoria.

    This graph shows Vet is Schools [VETiS] enrolments for Girls as a ratio of the Boys enrolments. 0% would mean there is an equal percentage of both boys and girls enrolled. A negative percentage [i.e. Building and Construction] shows girls are under-represented. A positive percentage [i.e. Community Services and Health] shows girls are over-represented.

    VETiS Gender Bias 2011 - Victoria
    Gender Bias – VETiS – Victoria 2011

    Where are future opportunities for girls?

    Where are the proposed cuts being made?

    The current and proposed cuts to TAFE programmes, listed here [PDF] by the AEU,   further enforces an already structural disadvantage for girls and young women.  Compounding rural and regional disadvantage and the already stark labour-market inequities that have occurred over the last twenty years, there is little or no defence in my view for the changes as I understand them.

    These changes do not encourage or address the growing lack of job-ready individuals and further solidifies a structural bias that I doubt few inside “urban” policy contexts seem to  really understand. Given the responses to these announcements, it does not appear Gender issues were considered appropriately.  This is a matter of both social cohesion and stark regional economic development that should be reconsidered with the highest priority.

    There is nothing like good public policy to improve regional and rural competitiveness;  these proposed cuts are nothing like good public policy.

    Links:

     

  • Aust Labour Market and Recessions

    Andrew Leigh says:

    Jeff Borland has a splendid article (gated, sorry) in the latest Australian Economic Review on what happens to the labour market in recessions. 4 Key points:

    1. The impact across industries differs greatly. In past recessions, employment tends to fall in agriculture, manufacturing and construction, but also tends to rise in ‘recreation and personal services’, and sometimes also in the ‘community services’ industry.
    2. In percentage point terms, youth unemployment tends to rise more than prime-aged unemployment in recessions,
    3.  In recessions, long term unemployment tends to increase more than short-term unemployment.
    4. Unemployment inflows and outflows both increase
    Read on…

    What happens to the Australian labour market in recessions?.

  • Black-White Test Score Gap?

    The Black-White Test Score Gap Down-under.

    Andrew Leigh observes: Discussing NT schools, the CIS’s Helen Hughes writes:

    This week all Australian children in school years 3, 5, 7 and 9 sat numeracy and literacy tests for the second time. The tests are to give Australians an annual snapshot of basic educational progress. The first national ‘NAPLAN’ tests, held in May 2008, showed that 90% of children passed. Western Australia has made the tests available for government schools on the Internet, and Education Minister Julia Gillard has promised that all the 2009 test results will be posted by school.

    An overview of the 2008 tests showed that there was no ‘gap’ between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. Indigenous students in mainstream schools in Victoria, Tasmania and the ACT had the same results as non-Indigenous students.

    I find this claim difficult to reconcile with the facts. Looking at the NAPLAN report(15mb), here’s year 7 numeracy:

    Table: Achievement Gap Yeat 7 Indigenous Students by State
    Achievement Year 7 Numeracy- Indigenous Students by State

    To put this into more concrete terms, the average score by year 7 Indigenous students is about the level of year 5 non-Indigenous students. (This is true even if you restrict the comparison to metropolitan schools.)

  • Macedon Youth Awards

    Macedon Youth Awards 2009. It’s that time of year again!

    Nominations are now open for the 2009 Macedon Ranges Youth Awards .

    … [Central Ranges LLEN News]

  • VET FEE-HELP Information 2009

    New information has been added to the VET FEE-HELP web pages.

    This booklet gives the most current information about accessing VET FEE-HELP assistance to pay for all or part of VET tuition fees. It is applicable to full fee-paying students in one or more of the following courses: a diploma, an advanced diploma, a graduate certificate, and a graduate diploma.

    Link –

    Download PDF
    PDF

    VET Fee Help 2009

  • Declaration on Ed Goals for Young Aussies

    Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians. In the busy rush to Christmas, many members may have missed the developments related to the Australian Education Ministers’ First Biennial … [Central Ranges LLEN News]