Indonesia skills roundtable discusses closer links with TAFE
Coalition plans to make it easier for international students to gain work rights
TDA National Conference papers, presentations and gallery
Latest news from TDA Green Skills Network
Consultation on draft curriculum: Work Studies Years 9–10
E-Learning model gets the green light
C.Y. O’Connor Institute in WA to offer agribusiness degree
Northern Territory training awards
Global students get a chance to win a year of study in Australia
TDA study mission to Germany and UK
Diary Dates
Indonesia skills roundtable discusses closer links with TAFE
Senior Indonesian and Australian business figures have joined forces to address skills needs in Indonesia in the wake of a joint Australian-Indonesian government commissioned skills survey.
TAFE Directors Australia (TDA) and the Indonesia Australia Business Council (IABC) co-hosted the Skills Training Roundtable in Jakarta in September. It was sponsored by the Australian and Indonesian governments.
Key education and industry leaders were briefed on the findings of the skills survey, regarding industry and polytechnic links in Indonesia and skills gaps across industry. The skills survey was jointly developed by TDA and Austrade.
The survey showed strong support for deeper engagement between the Indonesian polytechnic sector and local and international companies.
Industry leaders placed high value on additional training support from Australian TAFEs as a means of addressing the skills needs of Indonesia’s fast-growing economy.
The story is reported in today’s Australian Financial Review.
Read the media release.
Coalition plans to make it easier for international students to gain work rights
The Coalition’s Education Minister, Chris Pyne, has committed to reviewing post-study work rights of international students.
In today’s Australian Financial Review, Mr Pyne says the former Labor government went too far in tightening student visa eligibility after alleged rorting of the scheme.
Mr Pyne says he will work with Immigration Minister, Scott Morrison “to bring about clearer and more appropriate rules around post-study work rights and streamlining of visa applications”.
The Executive Director of the International Education Association of Australia, Phil Honeywood, is reported as saying he is optimistic that Mr Pyne will establish a ministerial coordination council on international education as recommended by the Chaney review.
TDA National Conference papers, presentations and gallery
Papers and presentations from the 2013 TDA National Conference in Brisbane in September are now available.
The conference, ‘TAFE Redefined’, brought an impressive list of local and international speakers to discuss issues including:
The economics of skills
Australia in the Asian Century
Redefining learning approaches: MOOCs, NBN
The elusive definition of quality
Tertiary connectedness
Indigenous workers and learners
Papers and presentations are available here.
View photos from the conference.
See a video of the conference.
Latest news from TDA Green Skills Network
The TDA International Green Skills Network has released its latest newsletter.
The newsletter contains information about the activities of the Network, the latest research in Education for Sustainability, a case study from Sunraysia Institute in Victoria, resources for teachers, grants information and a personal story from TAFE SA.
Click here for the newsletter
Consultation on draft curriculum: Work Studies Years 9–10
The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) has released the draft Australian Curriculum: Work Studies Years 9–10 for national consultation until 8 December.
The draft curriculum is available through ACARA’s consultation website. Note that users will need to register on the website to read, review, download, or print the draft curriculum and complete the online consultation survey.
Following consultation, all feedback will be analysed and used to revise the draft curriculum before it is published as the Australian Curriculum: Work Studies Years 9–10.
ACARA encourages and welcomes the involvement of all educators, and the wider community during the consultation process.
E-Learning model gets the green light
The Flexible Learning Advisory Group, (FLAG) has endorsed an E-learning Quality Model for use by Registered Training Organisations (RTOs).
This work was initiated by FLAG in 2012 as a research project which developed a set of quality criteria for e-learning and assessment. Further work was undertaken earlier in 2013, in the form of a pilot project involving a range of RTOs, including public and private providers, from five jurisdictions to validate the quality model.
Under its current review of the Standards for VET, the National Skills Standards Council (NSSC) has determined that specific standards for e-learning are not required, and that the revised standards will encompass all modes of delivery. FLAG is in agreement with this view.
Click here to see an electronic version of the model.
For information, contact Chris Stewart, FLAG Secretariat:
C.Y. O’Connor Institute in WA to offer agribusiness degree
Western Australia’s C.Y. O’Connor Institute has signed a formal agreement with Charles Sturt University that will see a Bachelor of Agricultural Business Management delivered at the Muresk Institute, near Northam, 100km east of Perth.
C.Y. O’Connor Institute Managing Director, John Scott said the initiative would once again see Muresk Institute as a centre of excellence in agribusiness education in the state.
Mr Scott emphasised that the degree program would not replicate the animal and crop based university courses already offered in WA. “It will have strong links to the farm at the Muresk Institute as well as exemplary commercial farms and agribusiness enterprises.”
The Agreement was signed at the conclusion of a meeting of the Wheatbelt Workforce Development Alliance.
The three year bachelor degree course will be delivered under the leadership of Dr Christine Storer, who previously led the team that delivered the agribusiness degree offered at Muresk by Curtin University.
Enrolments are officially open, and lectures begin next February.
Read more.
At the signing: (standing) Wendy Newman, CEO, Wheatbelt Development Commission; Paul Tomlinson, CEO, Avon Community Development Foundation; Dr Christine Storer, Director, C Y O’Connor Institute Higher Education Project; and John Henchy, Executive Officer, Farm Machinery and Industry Association (WA); (seated) John Scott, Managing Director, C Y O’Connor Institute; and Eileen O’Connell, Chair, Governing Council of C Y O’Connor Institute.
Northern Territory training awards
The Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education has been awarded Training Provider of the Year in the Northern Territory Training Awards.
Batchelor Institute, in collaboration with the Department of Education and Children’s Services, also picked up the Training Initiative Award for their Building the Remote Early Childhood Workforce project.
Charles Darwin University was runner-up in the Training Provider of the Year category, and also secured VET Teacher/Trainer of the Year award, with David Barker, a lecturer in the Commercial Cookery and Bakery Team.
See the results.
Global students get a chance to win a year of study in Australia
Students from around the globe will get the chance to win a year of study in Australia, including tuition, return flights, accommodation, a bursary of $A15,000 and an internship.
The Win your Future Unlimited campaign is a global, online competition managed by Austrade.
In addition to the major prize, a finalist will be selected each week and the seven finalists will be flown to Australia in December for a study tour.
To enter the competition, candidates visit www.futureunlimited.com.au and use the tools on the site to create a digital postcard about their future aspirations and how an Australian education can help realise them.
The competition runs from 1 October until 18 November and is supported by 21 Australian universities and colleges along with five gold sponsors: Educational Testing Services (ETS), National Australia Bank, Qantas, Telstra, and The University of New South Wales.
TDA study mission to Germany and UK
TAFE Directors Australia is joining with the LH Martin Institute for Tertiary Education Leadership and Management at the University of Melbourne, to lead a provider and industry study mission on critical issues affecting the Australian technical and vocational education system.
The mission will review innovation in delivery, with insights into the student experience, employer participation and alternate pathways for apprenticeships.
The 10-day study mission will visit Germany and the United Kingdom, from 11– 21 November. It will conclude with attendance at the UK Association of Colleges 2013 Annual Conference in Birmingham.
See more.
Diary Dates
AWPA Business Breakfast
Building next generation Asian connections
DATE: 18 October, 7.30 am
LOCATION: Sheraton on the Park, 161 Elizabeth St, Sydney
DETAILS: Click here for further information.
Knowledge management – use it or lose it
Queensland VET Development Centre
DATE: 23 October
DETAILS: Click here for further information.
2013 Webinar series
Queensland VET Development Centre
DATE: August – November
DETAILS: Click here for further information.
Love Apptually webinar series
Queensland VET Development Centre
DATE: 21August – 2 October
DETAILS: Click here for further information.
Australian Council for Adult Literacy Conference
DATE: 30 September – 2 October
LOCATION: University of Technology, Sydney
DETAILS: Click here for further information.
Australian International Education Conference
AEIC
DATE: 8-11 October
LOCATION: National Convention Centre, Canberra
DETAILS: Click here for further information.
2013 AUSTAFE National Conference
AUSTAFE
DATE: 9-11 October
LOCATION: Gold Coast Convention Centre, Queensland
DETAILS: Click here for more information.
5th National Student Engagement Forum: Creating an engaged student experience
LH Martin Institute and the Australian Council for Educational Research
DATE: 21, 23 & 25 October
LOCATION: Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane.
DETAILS: Click here for more information.
EYEQ2013 Conference
Queensland VET Development Centre
DATE: 24-25 October
LOCATION: Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, Queensland.
DETAILS: Click here for more information
2013 AAIR National Forum
Australasian Association for Institutional Research
DATE: 13-15 November
LOCATION: Perth, Western Australia
DETAILS: Click here for more information.
Risk Management for Tertiary Education Sector
Australian Institute of Company Directors and Association for Tertiary Education Management
DATE: 15 November
LOCATION: Sydney, NSW
DETAILS: Click here for more information.
conVerge13 – E-learning Conference
eWorks
DATE: 21-22 November
LOCATION: Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre
DETAILS: Click here for more information.
Australian Training Awards
Department of Industry, Innovation, Climate Change, Science, Research and Tertiary Education
DATE: 22 November
LOCATION: Perth
DETAILS: Click here for further information.
AVETRA 17th Annual Conference
Informing Changes in VET Policy and Practice: The Central Role of Research
DATE: 22-24 April 2014
LOCATION: Outrigger, Surfers Paradise, Queensland
DETAILS: Click here for further information.
The Scan is produced by Inter Mediate a Melbourne based public policy consulting practice, with a focus on education and training issues, particularly higher education.
The Scan reviews topical issues in the tertiary education sector and places them in a broader context.
Students from around the globe will get the chance to win a year of study in Australia, including tuition, return flights, accommodation, a bursary of $A15,000 and an internship.