Young people still job-hunting in WA

In the past year, Australia saw rates of unemployed and underemployed 16-24 year- olds rise to its highest numbers for 40 years.

Funding changes and economic turbulence have caused uncertainty in the job market landscape, and an increasing number of Australia’s young people grow unconvinced of their employment options for the future. Fewer students are engaging in programs and schemes that increase their employability and enhance their skillsets.

But what’s causing the disengagement? And what’s the solution?

Put simply, it’s a multifaceted problem.

From a social perspective, young people from disadvantaged backgrounds of low-income families, mental health issues, criminal histories or poor housing are much less likely to engage in meaningful engagement opportunities. This is particular prevalent amongst indigenous communities.

Also contributing to disengagement is the rise of technology and web-based interaction.  A young person’s employability rests heavily on the strength of their social and communication skillsets, both of which are strongly impeded by the anonymous, limited and artificial nature of online interaction.

These issues unsupported by the current instability in the labour market and the number of opportunities available. More and more young people are surrendering to part-time or casual work, offering very limited job security and financial stability.

It’s a critical time for talking about how and why disengagement has become so widespread. Not only are young people’s employment prospects affected by youth disengagement, but it’s a social issue that concerns communities, families, schools and society as a whole.

Now is the time for conversation about how we ensure young people are put on the path to meaningful professional careers. What are the gaps, where are they prevalent, and how do we close them?

To discuss WA’s leading strategies for this, Akolade is taking The 4^th Future of Youth Employment Forum to Western Australia.

This event is bringing WA’s most influential thought-leaders together to share best practices for re-engagement, successful collaboration, and effective transition pathways into employment for Australia’s young people. This is your opportunity to hear insights and case studies from the Federal and State Government, as well as WA’s biggest education providers, NFPs and industry leaders.

Join us to hear from:

Kellie Hippit, Branch Manager Youth Employment, Department of Employment

Gail Manton, Program Manager, School Pathways Program, Department of Education WA

Professor Dawn Freshwater, Vice-Chancellor, The University of Western Australia

Ross Kyrwood, CEO, YMCA WA

Darshi Ganeson-Oats, Director Strategic Partnerships, South Metropolitan TAFE                    

Deborah Hancock, CEO, Scitech

Peter Nikoletatos, National Industry Lead in Education, Optus

We hope to see you there!

Written by: Beth Hampton

Beth came to Australia in late 2016. Having spent some time travelling through Southeast Asia and briefly living in Singapore – she was ready to embrace the lifestyle of a working Sydneysider!

Beth grew up in London, and completed her degree in Psychology at the University of York. She always dreamed of landing a job in the police, but figured it was worth swapping the handcuffs and late shifts for an exciting new city and a job full of fun and opportunity in a fantastic company like Akolade!

Beth loves cooking, playing the piano, terrible British soap operas, an ice-cold G&T and exploring new places.

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It starts with education – creating brighter futures for our youth

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities remain disadvantaged in several areas, with one of the main components being education. 

Earlier this year; the ninth Closing the Gap report showed that little progress has been made over the years.

The school attendance rate has dropped marginally from 83.5 per cent in 2014 to 83.4 per cent in 2016, whilst the goal to halve the gap in literacy and numeracy skills remain far off track.

The number of Indigenous 20-24 year-olds having achieved Year 12 or equivalent increased from 45.4 per cent in 2008 to 61.5 per cent in 2014-15. However, the poor educational outcomes see a high unemployment rate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as well as a range of social issues such as poverty and poor health.

Indigenous education is a crucial topic that requires and demands more attention, discussion and action. Leaders from across the country will gather in Darwin for the NationalIndigenous Education Forum on the 18^th to the 20^th of October to discuss strategies to enhance the quality and access of education to change the current situation.

Speakers include:

• National leader Noel Pearson
• Canadian First Nations leader Clément Chartier from the Métis National Council
• Horowhenua College’s principal Grant Congdon from New Zealand
• As well as national primary and tertiary education providers and government departments

During the three-day conference, speakers will share their stories and case studies on engaging communities, families and elders in the children’s education and improving student engagement to see higher attendances rates and better academic outcomes.

Speakers will also discuss methods to create culturally safe and stimulating learning environments, prepare students for transitions into higher education, employment and adulthood, and how to build cross-sector partnerships.

Whilst there remain significant gaps in educational outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youths, the forum provides an important opportunity for collaboration as we join forces to solve this crisis.

Written by : Mimmie Wilhelmson

Mimmie grew up in Sweden and first came to Australia as a backpacker after high school. After travelling around the country for two years she returned to Europe and pursued a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism in London. But the longing for Australia and the sun became too strong. After having worked for some time in the media industry, Mimmie decided to make a change and swap the news for conferences. She now gets to do what she loves the most, meeting new people and keep learning about cultures and issues while producing conferences on current topics.

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Recruiting the right educators- it’s not child’s play

Australia’s early education and child care industry is booming, driven by factors such as the movement of women back to the workplace after giving birth. The opportunity, this has presented to child care services did not go unnoticed.

ABC Development Learning Centres buckling in 2008 opened the market for new providers.

In 2010 there were around 5900 long day care centres nationally. There are now well over 6800, according to the Melbourne City Institute of Education.

However, providing quality early education services is not playing around, as many centres are discovering.

On average only around 62.7% of child care providers across Australia are meeting the national quality standards. South Australia sits well below the average at only 47.9%.

In order to provide high quality services it is crucial, centres recruit and retain exceptional educators and carers. 

There are ways your child care facility can ensure you have the right people for the job:

•   Develop a recruitment policy

This should clearly articulate a service’s staffing needs and stipulate your selection criteria clearly.

•   Communicate the position requirements

Working in early education is a lot more than liking children and being able to change nappies. Being responsible for a human’s early development is a demanding profession and the required beliefs and knowledge to succeed in the field need to be explained and identified in the applicant.

•   Hone your advertising strategy

Take advantage of all advertising channels at your disposal. Whilst paid opportunities are often worthwhile (child care publications, newsletters and newspapers) often the most effective methods are through community circles or mother’s groups where the interaction is immediately personal.

•    Hand-pick your staff

Consider how the applicant will uphold your service’s current philosophy. Will they be a brand ambassador?

•    Conduct induction thoroughly

Establish an induction procedure which includes the introduction to children and families, the service’s practices and routines and the service’s progress to meeting national standards.

Written by: Claire Dowler

Claire Dowler is a Senior Conference Producer with Akolade. She recently graduated with a double degree: a Bachelor of Journalism and a Bachelor of Media and Communications Studies majoring in International Communication. Claire minored in sarcasm and puns.

A ballroom-dancer who collects salt and pepper shakers and volunteers for animal rescue, you might say Claire has eclectic interests.

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Not kidding around- Child care centres face new regulatory changes

Child care centres must operate under some of the most stringent regulations applicable to any sector, from the ratio of staff to children and the size of the rooms, to the meals served and play equipment used.

Despite these already strict regulations, the sector faces changes to the National Quality Standards, being implemented by ACECQA in October this year around Australia, with the exception of Western Australia who will undergo the changes in February 2018.

 Changes to the NQS include:

·         The requirement of approved providers of family day care services to hold a service approval in each jurisdiction where their educators operate

·         Approved providers of family day care services must ensure a minimum family day care coordinator to educator ratio of:

o   1:15 for the first 12 months of operation and at any other time at the discretion of the regulatory authority

o   1:25 after the first 12 months of operation.

·         The National Regulations to clarify that a risk assessment must be completed for all regular outings at least once a year

As demand for child care services grows and the industry booms, the regulations tighten to ensure the highest quality of services are provided to future generations.

Sydney’s inner west alone has a projected demand of 518 extra places in the Marrickville, Dulwich Hill and Sydenham areas as development occurs over the next few years.

Despite the growing demand for child care services, it is a complex sector to navigate and survive. Several providers including ABC Learning have already been forced to close their doors having become “unviable”.

Written by: Claire Dowler

Claire Dowler is a Senior Conference Producer with Akolade. She recently graduated with a double degree: a Bachelor of Journalism and a Bachelor of Media and Communications Studies majoring in International Communication. Claire minored in sarcasm and puns.

A ballroom-dancer who collects salt and pepper shakers and volunteers for animal rescue, you might say Claire has eclectic interests.

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Technology-enabled teaching methods dramatically improves STEM learning and skill development

Research conducted by the University of Canberra STEM Education Research Centre (SERC) in collaboration with tech giant Samsung has announced some pretty interesting findings this week.

Investigating the effects of a practical approach to mathematics education, the project found that integrating technology into primary school teaching practice increased students’ spatial reasoning and mathematical capability scores. In addition to this, it was also demonstrated that the integration of technology devices into secondary school science investigations improved student’s design-process thinking and inquiry-based learning.

The findings were presented at the Parliament House earlier this week in the presence of Craig Laundy, Assistant Minister for Industry Innovation and Science, and are a clear demonstration of the contributions to be made from industry participation in STEM research and education.

Education Minister, Senator the Hon. Simon Birmingham said the collaboration between Samsung and the University of Canberra highlighted how businesses and researchers could join forces to deliver real potential benefits for Australians.

“The Turnbull Government is focused on ensuring all students have the support they need to succeed and we encourage contributions like this one from Samsung and the University of Canberra because they have the potential to give young Australians even more opportunities,” Minister Birmingham said.

It’s clear that these partnerships have much to contribute to the national effort to reform the science and mathematics curriculum. Universities and industry need to continue the shift into this mindset and increase efforts to form partnerships, so we can collaboratively reignite a national interest in STEM education and fuel future productivity in the economy.

Samsung’s Head of Corporate Social Responsibility, Tess Ariotti, says the findings hold significance not only for educators and policy makers but also for the wider community.

“By bringing together the best of Samsung digital technologies with proven creative design methods and world-leading science research, Samsung has gained a better understanding of training that can improve math performance and STEM education practices,” Tess said.

Professor Tom Lowrie, University of Canberra’s SERC Director, said “the research has allowed us to open the door to opportunities for action-based educational experiences and greater collaboration with educators and the wider STEM industry.”

Tess Ariotti and Tom Lowrie are co-presenting at the Future-Proofing STEM Industries summit, discussing the collaborative work being done between Samsung and the University of Canberra and the potential for nationwide STEM education reform with education-industry partnerships.

Join us at the event to hear from Tess and Tom, as well as numerous other case studies from top industry and university speakers.

Written by: Beth Hampton

Beth came to Australia in late 2016. Having spent some time travelling through Southeast Asia and briefly living in Singapore – she was ready to embrace the lifestyle of a working Sydneysider!

Beth grew up in London, and completed her degree in Psychology at the University of York. She always dreamed of landing a job in the police, but figured it was worth swapping the handcuffs and late shifts for an exciting new city and a job full of fun and opportunity in a fantastic company like Akolade!

Beth loves cooking, playing the piano, terrible British soap operas, an ice-cold G&T and exploring new places. 

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Industry 4.0 needs digitally-literate innovators in Australia

Australia’s workforce is ageing and the development of technical skills is not keeping pace with the retirements. We have a static rate of graduates, high dropout rates and lower and lower numbers of secondary students interested in completing the required maths and science to enter engineering.

It seems that the appeal of STEM is dwindling amongst Australia’s young people – a looming catastrophe in world of accelerating technological change.

We are in the midst of a new digital revolution known as industry 4.0. Technology is changing the way we live, work and play and shaping major trends in globalisation, automation, collaboration and the way businesses operate.  

It’s unquestionable that Australia needs to cultivate more cooperation and collaborative networks between education and industry to combat this. Closer engagement benefits schools, universities, businesses and students by providing them with vital job skills necessary for employment, but only 1 in 7 undergraduate students in the natural and physical sciences participates in industry programs.

If we’re going to develop these greater collaborative networks, the promotion of industry interaction through the curriculum in education is an area that warrants increased investment and attention. The promotion of STEM education and training is another focus area – participation in science subjects in Australian schools is at the lowest level in 20 years, and our ranking in school-level scientific literacy dropped between 2006 to 2012.

Akolade’s Future-Proofing STEM Industries Summit is addressing this head-on. You’ll find Australia’s most knowledgeable experts and thought-leaders all in one place, there to discuss how Australia is going to nurture a stronger pipeline for jobs requiring STEM skills.

Don’t miss out! Be part of the discussion on 19^th -21^st September in Sydney.

Written by: Beth Hampton

Beth came to Australia in late 2016. Having spent some time travelling through Southeast Asia and briefly living in Singapore – she was ready to embrace the lifestyle of a working Sydneysider!

Beth grew up in London, and completed her degree in Psychology at the University of York. She always dreamed of landing a job in the police, but figured it was worth swapping the handcuffs and late shifts for an exciting new city and a job full of fun and opportunity in a fantastic company like Akolade!

Beth loves cooking, playing the piano, terrible British soap operas, an ice-cold G&T and exploring new places.

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Snapchat - still a big thing to engage students

Snapchat is Australia’s 5^th social media channel with 4,000,000 daily active users, 1 in every 6 Australians, and with its largest audience aged 18-24 (31%), followed by 25-34-year-olds (28%), 13-17 (23%) and 35+ (18%).

As statistics show, millennials have fully adapted to using Snapchat on a daily basis and others shouldn’t be afraid to do the same as there can be significant benefits.

Even though Facebook is Australia’s (and a global) favourite, and despite being compared to Facebook back in 2004 as a new platform still waiting to see engagement from non-early adopters, Snapchat is already a major marketing platform for many businesses – and especially for universities.

As a favourite amongst the younger generations, Snapchat is also the favourite app for students.

With more than 70% of college students accessing Snapchat at least once a day and half of students using the app as a main source of communication, undoubtedly universities need to get involved.

Universities can use this app for multiple benefits – to attract prospective students, engage with the community of current students and alumni on an informal and conversational level, add a sense of exclusivity to stories shared, and much more.

Snapchat also offers the opportunity for universities to speak to students how they want to be spoken to and where, and ask particular questions which can enhance their engagement and performance.

During the student application process, potential applicants may not want to hear the same old pitch from an admissions officer – but instead, think about the connection they could make if they were put in touch with an actual student who is sharing their story on Snapchat.

This can create real and dynamic connections which can make all the difference.

With a successful immersive Snapchat campaign for its 2016 Open Day and stating it as the “perfect platform” to demonstrate what is like to be a student at USYD, University of Sydney will present a Snapchat case study at Akolade’s Social Media for Higher Education Conference, coming to Sydney on the 3^rd-5^th May 2017.

Jenna Bradwell, Student Marketing Officer and Social Media Specialist at the University of Sydney, will share her strategies to help social media leaders establish campaign goals (engaging and retaining), leverage new channels to diversify engagement methods, enhance the student experience, and build a following.

*Statistics compiled by SocialMediaNews.com.au for January 2017.

Written by: Vanessa Carvalho

Coming directly from the enormous and busy Sao Paulo city, Vanessa is now enjoying all the Sydney’s pretty views and beach lifestyle.

With a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and more than 7 years’ experience in international corporate events, she’s the new addition to Akolade’s multicultural team. Despite her shyness, she is bringing a little bit of the cheerful Brazilian culture to our office, especially typical food.

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Social media - the Harvard way

What’s it like running the social media channels of one of the world’s top Ivy League universities?

Robert Bochnak, Director of Social Media- Office of Alumni Relations, Harvard Business School, will tell you it’s a lot of fun- and a lot of work.

With Facebook likers totalling almost half a million, over 300k followers on Twitter and almost 70k followers on Instagram, it’s vital Robert has the right practices in place to ensure their social media presence is sustained and continues to grow.

So what are Robert’s favourite tools of the trade?

1.       Storify

“From the outset, the main objective of my social media work has been to engender as much alumni engagement as possible. This goal can be met through Twitter alone, but Storify opens up additional outreach opportunities. For example, once I publish a Storify I can send the link to classmates of alumni quoted in the story.”

2.       TweetDeck

“During a typical month, I’ll curate 2-3 chats on a particular business-or career-related topic via Twitter. These conversations usually last a few days and commence with a leading statement I want alumni to complete (“Leadership is…”) or a question I’d like them to answer (“Which HBS Professor had the greatest impact on you and why?”). In the hours leading up to the chats, I identify the alumni I would like to target–this can be based on everything from business interests to when they graduated–and then, using TweetDeck, I schedule tweets to these individuals.”

3.       Spredfast

“When I looked deeper into Spredfast and its functionality I found some very useful applications, one of which is its ability to provide excellent analytics. This is vitally important to my work since one of my mandates is to drive traffic to our alumni website. With these reports–which provide everything from clickthrough numbers to engagement stats–I’m able to provide yet another means to justify the impact and importance of our social media efforts.”

Robert is the international keynote at our Social Media in Higher Education coming to Sydney, May 3-5, 2017. 

Written by: Claire Dowler

Claire Dowler is a Conference Producer with Akolade. She recently graduated with a double degree: a Bachelor of Journalism and a Bachelor of Media and Communications Studies majoring in International Communication. Claire minored in sarcasm and puns.

A ballroom-dancer who collects salt and pepper shakers and volunteers for animal rescue, you might say Claire has eclectic interests.

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Don’t blame disengagement on the student

The job of teachers is one of the most important jobs out there, yet it is often one that’s overlooked, underpaid and understaffed.

Not ensuring students the best education has massive consequences, not only for the student, but for a nation as a whole.

I know firsthand the importance of having good teachers. I know what difference they make not only to your learning, but also to your self-esteem. They have the power to help build and create the person you will be for the rest of your life. Whilst having a great teacher will set you off to a great start in life, having a bad teacher can damaging for the rest of your life.

It is the teacher’s responsibility to engage all students in the daily learning activities and to encourage all students that they have the capacity to achieve great things. It’s by no means an easy task, but a vitally important one, one that requires skills that few have.

According to a recent report by Grattan ­Institute, Engaging Students: Creating Classrooms that Improve Learning, disengagement in the classroom has a profound effect on the whole classroom environment and the overall learning of all students, the Australian reports.

“It’s [disengagement] certainly reducing academic results. If more students were more engaged, they would be learning more and our results overall would increase and we should aim to do that,’’ Grattan’s school education program director, Peter Goss, told the Australian.

During my first years of school, yes, the ones when everyone is really excited and hungry to learn, I was not. I became at a very early age one of those disengaged students, much to my lack of self-esteem and my teacher’s inability to give praise. However, I noticed a drastic change when changing teacher to one who told me that I was smart and encouraged me to do even better. Both my parents and I were in shock. I thought there was no future for me and I was already doomed to be a dumb looser.  

Motivated by my teacher’s praise, I became one of the biggest swots in the class, and my grades improved massively. Not only did my grades improve, but so did my self-esteem.

Despite the importance of being able to engage students, it appears to be a skill many teachers lack. The Grattan report found that many graduate teachers aren’t properly trained for the challenges in the classroom.

The report found that “only half of new graduates say their initial teaching training course helped in “managing classroom activities to keep students on task’’ and only one-third felt their course had assisted them in “dealing with difficult student behaviour’’. Just one in three principals believe new teachers are well prepared for managing classrooms,” the Australian reported.

As a result, there are calls for better training of future teachers, for teachers to be able to respond to the needs of all students.

From someone who had the both of two worlds; the damages my first teacher made to my self-esteem is something that I’ve constantly had to work with and an issue that’s hard to get rid of. But the positives my other teacher brought helped me get back on track and become the person I always could be.

Written by: Mimmie Wilhelmson

Mimmie grew up in Sweden and first came to Australia as a backpacker after high school. After travelling around the country for two years she returned to Europe and pursued a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism in London. But the longing for Australia and the sun became too strong. After having worked for some time in the media industry, Mimmie decided to make a change and swap the news for conferences. She now gets to do what she loves the most, meeting new people and keep learning about cultures and issues while producing conferences on current topics.

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Hacks, slander and sabotage: Responding to online crises

As our daily communication migrates online, crises in these digital domains are becoming increasingly common.

UNSW learnt this the hard way last year when they had an alarming outbreak of scantily-clad women on their Facebook page.

Whilst preventing the crisis in the first place is obviously preferable, it is of the highest priority to respond appropriately should one occur.

Your online crisis response plan should include the following:

1.       Acknowledge

Even if you know nothing about the situation, acknowledge that something has happened. A company which says “We realise an unfortunate event has occurred. We are investigating and will provide you with answers as soon as they are made available” will have a greater chance of retaining your customer loyalty than deafening silence.

2.       Respond

If a crises has emerged on Instagram there is little point responding to it on Twitter. Address the concerns where the conversation is happening.

3.       Create a crisis 411

Pull all relevant information about the incident into one place. Should queries be raised, they will be easily answered by providing the link rather than supplying paragraph-long answers throughout your social networks.

4.       Let it happen- under your control

People will find a means to express themselves when they are dissatisfied so you may as well let it happen under your supervision. By providing a point of release for expressing dissatisfaction you prevent it from happening elsewhere.

5.       Forewarned is forearmed

Your employees are going to be contacted, questioned and possibly confronted. The last thing you need is quotes being circulated from uneducated sources. Prepare them by arming them with all the information they need about the incident to prevent further damage to your reputation.

Don’t miss Akolade’s Social Media for Higher Education Conference coming to Sydney on the 3^rd-5^th May 2017, where knowledgeable industry leaders will share how to drive engagement and organisational growth through social media channels.

Written by: Claire Dowler

Claire Dowler is a Conference Producer with Akolade. She recently graduated with a double degree: a Bachelor of Journalism and a Bachelor of Media and Communications Studies majoring in International Communication. Claire minored in sarcasm and puns.

A ballroom-dancer who collects salt and pepper shakers and volunteers for animal rescue, you might say Claire has eclectic interests.

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Why we should all take up Chinese

The Federal Government is pushing for Australian school children to learn more languages, and launched a foreign language programme, ELLA, for pre-schoolers to boost international literacy.

Currently around 8,500 pre-schoolers around Australia are using the app, with the top three most popular languages being Chinese, Japanese and French, the Adviser reported.

“Seeing and hearing young children counting, following recipes and singing in a language that isn’t their native tongue, you understand how engaging this app is and why it has had such positive feedback from kids, educators and families,” Education Minister Simon Birmingham said, the Adviser reported.

Perhaps it’s even more crucial now than ever, that we get on board the Asian market, considering that China is Australia’s third biggest trading partner.

Minister Birmingham was especially happy to see the strong uptake of Asian languages, considering that we live in an “Asian century”.

However, statistics show that for example in NSW between 2005 and 2015, the amount of Year 12 students taking Chinese went down from 1,500 to 832, with only 153 of those being non-native Chinese speakers, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

And nationally the statistics were equally bad, with 4,000 students taking Chinese in 2015, only 400 of those were from a non-Chinese background.

There are arguments that studying Chinese should be made compulsory for Australian school children. Though both Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott showed interest in increasing the level of student participation in Asian languages, the task has now been passed on to current Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. 

But let’s hope the recent initiatives by the government, as well as schools’ own initiatives to encourage students to take Chinese, will have a bigger impact than the poor statistics we’ve seen in recent years.

From a financial and business perspective, being able to participate on the Chinese market is crucial, and it has to start with the younger generation of Australians.

Mimmie grew up in Sweden and first came to Australia as a backpacker after high school. After travelling around the country for two years she returned to Europe and pursued a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism in London. But the longing for Australia and the sun became too strong. After having worked for some time in the media industry, Mimmie decided to make a change and swap the news for conferences. She now gets to do what she loves the most, meeting new people and keep learning about cultures and issues while producing conferences on current topics.

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Major reforms to shake up VET industry, loans scheme scrapped as of 1st December 2016

Vocational education, the great hope of the Gillard government to boost Australia’s skills based is an unmitigated disaster. The sector is expected a blowout of $3 billion in public debt this year. While its completion rate for courses is delivered online hovers around 6%. So how did it go so wrong?

Starting in 2012 the Gillard announced that publicly funded TAFE’s must now compete with private institutions who has shifted most of their learning online. As a result, the private market had access to public student loans while under its restructure, TAFE had to close its campuses, 5000 jobs were made redundant and lost 100 000 students to institutions that offered more flexibility in learning.

Australian TAFE’s loss has been the private sectors gain. Until 2015, private providers could recruit as many students as they see fit using any means possible e.g. laptops and free courses were handed in around the country, in exchange for students signing up to thousands of dollars of public debt which they didn’t have to give back until they earned $55000 per annum.  

The former Vocational Education Minister Scott Ryan said the scheme “has quite frankly been a disaster for taxpayers. The uncontrolled growth of the scheme is completely unsustainable.”

Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham has pledged to take a leading role in rebuilding the sector over the next term.

“It’s become apparent that to truly fix the VET FEE-HELP scheme we first need to axe it. The scheme has been fundamentally broken from its design and we need to build a replacement model from the ground up.

“From December 31 this year, no further loans will be issued under the VET FEE-HELP scheme. We will bring in place a new scheme, TAFE’s and public providers will be provided with automatic entry into the new scheme. Private providers will have to meet strong and clear tests and those tests will be related to their relationship with their employers, employment outcomes, satisfaction of their students, completion rates and compliance with regulatory settings,” he said.

Just how successful they’ll be at transforming a sector that has cost taxpayers dearly remains to be seen. What are your thoughts on this matter?

The best part of my job as an Assistant General Manager – Production is to create and manage my own conferences from concept to delivery, identify future conference topics as well as giving me a chance to expand my business card collection. Having a bit of a sweet tooth, you will always find me having lollies on my desk or you will catch me browsing on fashion sites during lunch breaks.

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