Bill: Education - Australia

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 11:54:25 GMT

Study confirms impact of education on future earnings. A study of young Australians has found that the post secondary education they choose will have a direct impact on their future income. The findings by the Australian Council of Education Research has followed 4,000 high school students for the past decade, since they were in Year 9. The analyses revealed that for some vocational education and training (VET) qualification, earnings increased initially but are not sustained over time. [edna]

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:08:34 GMT

Teachers target success in Qld Indigenous schools. More than 100 Queensland teachers and principals have taken part in a special training program in Cairns to prepare them to teach in remote Indigenous community schools in 2009. The teachers were among 140 experienced and beginning teachers, including 13 Indigenous teachers, who applied and were selected through the Partners for Success strategy to teach at Queensland's 39 recognised Indigenous schools. Queensland government, 18 January 2009. [edna]

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 02:39:30 GMT

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]

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 01:54:48 GMT

NCVER releases new Australian vocational education and training statistics. This National Centre of Vocational Education Research's (NCVER) publication provides estimates of apprentice and trainee activity for the quarter ending 31 December 2007. Overall trends are released in commencements, in-training, completions, cancellations and withdrawals, patterns of commencements, and personal, employment, and training characteristics, of commencing apprenticeships and trainees. Tables are included with statistics by state and territory. [Vocational Education & Training Headlines]

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 11:51:02 GMT

The economic benefit of investment in Adult Community Education in Victoria. This study describes and quantifies the economic benefits resulting from adult and community education (ACE) in Victoria. It describes Victoria's ACE sector, the role of the state government, and identifies the advantages of ACE in Victoria as market or non-market benefits. Appendices are: Case studies, Conceptual framework for analysing the social benefits of education, and a comprehensive list of references. [edna]

Skilling Australia

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 02:19:21 GMT

Skilling Australia: our apprenticeship challenge. Why do half of all apprentices fail to complete their training? For a start, there's the issue of pay: with earnings just a fraction above the dole, ... [Central Ranges LLEN News]

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 11:43:55 GMT

Destinations Conference 2008. DESTINATIONS - OUR CORE BUSINESS The 2008 Later Years Conference – ‘DESTINATIONS: our core business’ – is to be held on ... [Central Ranges LLEN News]

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 07:20:36 GMT

Market orientated VET reforms discussed. The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry wants the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting to consider national market orientated reforms to the TAFE sector as part of the negotiations between commonwealth and state over funding for vocational education and training. These reforms are currently being proposed by the Victorian Government in a discussion paper where it is suggested that government supported post-school training will be available to public and private providers. [Vocational Education & Training Headlines]

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 12:02:36 GMT

The State of Victoria's Young People. The state of Victoria's young people reports on how young people aged 12-24 are faring against the whole-of-government government outcomes framework, ... [Central Ranges LLEN News]

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 11:29:57 GMT

NAIDOC Week. NAIDOC celebrations are held around Australia in July to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. NAIDOC originally stood for ‘National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee’. This committee was once responsible for organising national activities during NAIDOC Week (see History of NAIDOC), and its acronym has become the name of the week itself. 6 - 13 July 2008. [Vicnet - Front Page Articles]

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 22:21:34 GMT

Addressing the hard class issue. This seminar will address issues such as: why some classes are so difficult to work with; early intervention and colleague support; changing patterns of distracting and disruptive behaviour; working with ring-leaders, power-brokers and students who bully teachers and enable a fresh start with a hard class. [edna]

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 22:20:19 GMT

Australian slang expressions and words. A collection of common Australian slang expressions and words and their 'translation' into plain English. [edna]

Fri, 30 May 2008 03:16:19 GMT

Many Models.

My last full day here in Australia before the long trip home tomorrow. I get my day back, but who knows how long it will be before I get my body clock back. Last summer it took almost two weeks for me to get straight. Tips anyone? (Be nice.)

Haven’t had time to think much of this through, so excuse the relatively thin thinking. (Feel free to poke holes in it, as always.)

I’ve visited a couple of pretty interesting schools during my visit, one that’s in the process of being built, another that’s been around for 30 years, both different in their design. The new school, a high school, will be one built on open spaces for learning, project based learning concepts, individualized learning plans and very different roles for teachers and classrooms. The spaces have been designed with the great thinkers in mind, DaVinci and Einstein spaces, spaces that on blueprint at least offer up a great deal of potential for creativity and independence and passion based learning. Arts are embedded in the curriculum, and there is a really different concept of assessment. With any luck, I’ll be writing more about this place in the near future.

The other school was out in the country, surrounded by fields filled with cows and chickens and pigs. It was a small, PreK-6 school where the classrooms had all sorts of angles and skylights and patterns. Everywhere you look there is evidence of performance learning. Every classroom has a kitchen where kids do a lot of cooking. Outside, playground spaces are performance spaces as well. And the kids tend to the livestock and the farm as well as the school. I loved the feel.

Technology plays a role in both of these schools, though the roles are different to be sure. The high school will be a 1-1 school. The other is expanding the access of computers to its kids. Both are ripe for the ways in which technology can supplement real learning in the classroom, not just information processing. Obviously, there is much more about the culture and the infrastructure and the climate that goes into all of this.

The early thinking that’s evolved from those visits for me is this: we have been living in a world with pretty much one, ubiquitous model for schools for a long time now. This strikes me every time I take off on a plane to somewhere and am able without any trouble to pick out the school buildings we’re flying over. They’re all at right angles, with baseball and football fields nearby. The sizes and number of buildings vary, but it’s rare that I see yellow school buses parked next to anything that looks like something other than a factory.

In my own thinking about what schools might become, I’m realizing that I’ve been thinking that this old model is going to turn into a different model. But what’s really going to happen, I think, is that we’re about to explode into many different models. Obviously, this may not happen with any great momentum until we free up our ideas about assessment and learning culture, neither of which is an easy road. But we do need to find ways to support more unique, passion-based schools, places that like our kids, come in all shapes and sizes. I can’t remember when he said it, whether blog or e-mail, but Tom Hoffman reminded me a while ago that we have a lot of different models out there already, many of which are successful in their own right. And as we move away from that one factory model, we need to be open to whatever types of new models might evolve.

(Photo “old classroom” by shuichiro.)

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Sun, 11 May 2008 09:42:32 GMT

HECS-style system flagged for TAFE students. Theage.com.au - Tue Apr 29, 04:10 pm GMT [News4Sites - Australia Education] [Central Ranges LLEN CEO Library]

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 09:35:01 GMT

Australian Schools 2020 Summit Report. The 2020 Schools Summits were designed to get young people involved in shaping Australia’s future. And get involved is exactly what they did. ... [Central Ranges LLEN News]

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 07:38:31 GMT

All I really need to know (about creative thinking) I learned (by studying how children learn) in Kindergarten. This paper by Mitchel Resnick argues that the "kindergarten approach to learning" characterised by a spiraling cycle of Imagine, Create, Play, Share, Reflect, and back to Imagine – is ideally suited to the needs of the 21st century, helping learners develop the creative-thinking skills that are critical to success and satisfaction in today's society. [edna]

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 07:34:57 GMT

Blueprint 2008. For the benefit of members and all community stakeholders, we would like to draw your attention to the release of the Blueprint for Early Childhood ... [Central Ranges LLEN News]

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 05:54:31 GMT

Skilling the existing workforce. The findings from this report re-enforce the importance of skilling up the existing workforce. They include: strategies for an ageing population; the need to retain existing workers; lack of post-secondary skills and qualifications; and rapid change in the nature of skills required in the 21st century workforce. Workers learn by informal and formal experiences as they age and these learnings should be incorporated into a "workforce skills development approach". Many of the consultations are with representatives of the manufacturing industries (glass, cars and trucks, submarines, white goods, hydraulics, textiles, recycling, railways, and pipes) as well as education and training stakeholders. [edna]

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 05:52:02 GMT

Study into the Teaching of Geography released. A Study has been released on the Teaching of Geography in Years 3-10, funded by the Australian Government and completed by Erebus International, which maps State and Territory syllabus and curriculum documents. It also includes interviews with staff in key organisations, and provides a sample national Years 3-10 geography curriculum framework to stimulate further discussion. [edna]

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 04:22:21 GMT

Federal government launches new skills and training website. This website supports the Australian Government's Skilling Australia for the future initiative. It gives relevant details and links to information about the current vocational education and training (VET) environment, and a 'road map for reform' document in the Skills and Training Information section. Main headings relate to Employer, Employee and Job seeker with categories including Skills and Training Information Centres, Productivity Places Program, Industry Skills Councils, Registered Training Organisations, and Support Organisations. [Vocational Education & Training Headlines]

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 11:00:25 GMT

Family, school and community partnerships. The Minister for Education has announced funding of $800,000 for a unique Family-School and Community Partnership Bureau. The aim is to help develop partnerships between parents, schools and the community. [School Education Headlines] [Central Ranges LLEN CEO Library]

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 00:57:24 GMT

Indigenous training network proposed. Jobs Australia (the national peak body for non-profit providers of employment and related services) will establish an Indigenous Training Network (ITN) to develop the capacity of Indigenous organisations and communities to deliver high quality vocational education and training (VET) to their communities. This initiative is jointly funded by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) and Jobs Australia; funding is available for 18 months. [Vocational Education & Training Headlines]

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 00:56:57 GMT

Government proposes amendments to VET FEE-HELP. The objective of VET FEE-HELP is to provide an Australian Government loan to ease the upfront financial burden for full fee-paying students in high level vocational education and training courses, including Diploma and Advanced Diploma courses that have appropriate credit transfer into a higher education award. The proposed amendments ensure that VET FEE-HELP is to be made available only to students paying full fees; and in order to offer VET FEE-HELP to students, VET providers must have credit transfer arrangements in place. [Vocational Education & Training Headlines]

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 00:16:16 GMT

Australian TAFE programs to be run in China. TAFE Directors Australia and the China Education Association for International Exchange will formalise a new memorandum of understanding for Australian TAFEs to be able to include their industry partners in vocational education and training (VET) delivery in China. There will also be an exchange of experts as well as recognition of courses and standards. [Vocational Education & Training Headlines]

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 23:54:37 GMT

Skills Australia Bill 2008. The Skills Australia Bill 2008 has been introduced to Parliament establishing Skills Australia, an organisation comprising of seven experts from a range of backgrounds including economics, industry, academia, and training providers. It also provides new industry-driven training places with higher level qualifications. [edna recently added]