Newsletter: 4 February 2008

• MESSAGE FROM TDA CHAIR DEB DALY
• SKILLS IN SCHOOLS - AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT DISCUSSION PAPER
• IBSA INTERNATIONAL PACKAGE LAUNCH
• CHINESE NEW YEAR EVENT
• UPDATE - RECOGNITION OF PRIOR LEARNING REPORTS
• IMPROVEMENT OF THE BEAUTY TRAINING PACKAGE - SEEKING COMMENT
• AusLIST UPDATE
• NOTICE TO MEMBERS - SCIENCE FUNDING
• DEEWR CONTACT INFORMATION UPDATE
• PACIFIC TECHNICAL COLLEGES JOIN FORCES
• DIARY DATES

MESSAGE FROM TDA CHAIR DEB DALY  

Well I am sure that everyone is off to a big start for the new academic year and I hope that you are all experiencing "bumper" enrolments. The TDA office has been busy, with a cast of new staff on board, some exciting projects about to start and new opportunities presenting themselves on a regular basis as the new federal government starts to really get hold of the reigns.  We find ourselves being constantly asked for views, feedback or endorsement across a wide range of VET issues and it is heartening to know that our organisation is gaining a reputation for value as an important stakeholder in our industry.

Sometimes the requests come in with very short time lines, so I hope you will forgive us when we send things out to you for comment with just a few days notice. We are trying to work out ways to make our consultation processes more effective and this may involve identifying "thought leaders" around different areas of the VET industry. In this way we might be able to share the load more evenly. Thanks to those who do make the effort to send feedback when asked - it is important that the messages that come from our organisation are representative of our membership.

I hope February is an exciting month for you all and look forward to meeting some of you around the traps.

Deb Daly, TDA Chair

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SKILLS IN SCHOOLS - AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT DISCUSSION PAPER

DEEWR has issued a Discussion Paper ahead of a national consultation proposed for the Government's $2.5 billion pledge for trade training facilities in secondary schools. TAFE Directors Australia and major peak bodies are being invited to participate in consultation sessions, beginning this week. 

Click here to view the document. 

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IBSA INTERNATIONAL PACKAGE LAUNCH  

TAFE Directors welcomed last week's launch by Senator Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry Science and Research, of the revised Business Services Business Package (BSB07). The launch was staged in Melbourne, hosted by Innovation and Business Skills Australia (IBSA). Several of our member Institute CEOs attended, along with TDA executives (pictured). 

Photo: (left to right)Virginia Simmons (Chisholm Institute), John Maddock (Box Hill Institute), the Hon Kim Carr, Sharon Coates (IBSA CEO), and Alistair Crozier (Swinburne)

For more information about the package visit the IBSA website. Workshops for the package will occur from March to July throughout Australia. To view topics, dates and venues click here. 

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CHINESE NEW YEAR EVENT  

NSW Minister for Education and Training, the Hon John Della Bosca MP will be a guest speaker at the TAFE Directors Australia's Chinese New Year Business and TAFE Network Function to be held Thursday, 7 February 2008 at NSW Parliament House.

TDA members will join the Australia China Business Council Board and key partners involved in TAFE's international engagement with China for an evening of networking and celebration. 

2008 is the Year of the Rat - a time of hard work, activity, and renewal. This is a fitting theme for the major announcement of the evening, the conclusion of negotiations between TDA and the China Education Association for International Exchange for a new five year agreement. 

This agreement will build on the success of the previous three year Memorandum of Understanding which saw up to eight institutes from Australia engage with Chinese partners for economic and cultural outcomes. A key feature of the new agreement will be the close alignment and involvement of industry in both China and Australia and a focus on collaboration to meet industry skilling needs. 

For more information contact Rebecca Biazos Director International Engagement on email rebeccabiazos@bigpond.com or 0407 550 180.

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UPDATE - RECOGNITION OF PRIOR LEARNING REPORTS  

As we reported last week, Australian and Canadian governments have recently submitted reports to the OECD on Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL).

The reports found that despite recognition being a major policy initiative for governments in many countries, uptake remains low.

Berwyn Clayton, Director, Centre Undertaking Research in Vocational Education (CURVE), Canberra Institute of Technology has prepared a detailed summary on the issue. Click here to view the summary. 

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IMPROVEMENT OF THE BEAUTY TRAINING PACKAGE - SEEKING COMMENT

In 2007, Service Skills Australia began a consultation process to review and improve the Beauty Training Package. A discussion paper on the trends and issues that impact the industry was distributed, and comments and changes have now been incorporated into the document. Service Skills Australia is seeking validation of the contents of the final report from stakeholders. All comments are due by 29 February. To participate click here. 

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AusLIST UPDATE

Australian Education International has advised that AusLIST, the directory of Australian education and training providers and the courses that they deliver offshore, will go through in-house user testing over the next 2 weeks.

Full training sessions for providers are likely to commence in late March /early April, with a “go live” date for external clients and partners to be announced in the near future.

For those TAFE institutes active in offshore delivery AusLIST will be an important tool in your quality delivery, marketing and partnership development. For more information contact the Offshore Quality Taskforce tqs@dest.gov.au or visit www.dest.gov.au

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NOTICE TO MEMBERS - SCIENCE FUNDING

The Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research issued a notice in the Australian Financial Review (29/01/08, pp13) about the Competitive Grants that are available through the International Science Linkages (ISL) program. 

To view the announcement, please see the attached document. 

The next round of grant applications will run from 11 February to 11 April. For more information go to: www.dest.gov.au/science/isl/

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DEEWR CONTACT INFORMATION UPDATE

On Friday 1 February 2008 all Department of Education Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) staff (formally DEST) were issued with a new e-mail address following the recent changes in Departmental structures.

The standard address for the new e-mail address will be: firstname.lastname@deewr.gov.au. 
 

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PACIFIC TECHNICAL COLLEGES JOIN FORCES

The Australian Pacific Technical College and the Port Moresby Technical College have signed a Memorandum of Agreement designed to provide the Port Moresby Institution with greater opportunity for staff and students to upgrade their skills and resources. See an article in Papua New Guinea paper The National here. 

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DIARY DATES

SERVICE SKILLS AUSTRALIA 2008 CONFERENCE 
Update, Motivate, Educate

AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATION OF CAREER COUNSELLORS 
National Career Conference: 'Career Landscape: From Island to Global'

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