Robyn Jay

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Robyn Jay New Ways of Working in VET November 2004
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• Who we are
• Project aims
• Snapshot of pilot projects
• Key messages to date

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Northern Rivers Community Colleges Funded via
Board of ACE Sydney 6 independent Colleges 5
RTOs 11 locations
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• Aim
• To trial, evaluate and document a range of
  approaches and strategies for engaging youth
  across 5 action learning projects.
• In particular to identify
• Local issues and needs
• Education options for those the mainstream system
  has failed
• What works and what doesnt at a local level
• The professional development and support needs of
  teachers and youth workers
• The interests, needs and issues for local youth
• Ways of overcoming barriers to education and
  training for youth
• Partnerships and links with other local support
  organisations

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Pilot projects Lismore Partnership with Lismore
Connections (Links to Learning) Surfing/
CGEA Yamba/Grafton Indigenous Arts Tweed
Heads Intergenerational CGEA General
Education Byron Shire Partnership with Byron
Youth Enterprise Service, Links to Learning and
community mentors - Travel and Tourism
Murwillumbah Off the Wall Graffiti Art
research project
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• All the projects
• are part-time
• are community based
• are project based
• draw on significant others role models,
  mentors
• are informal and student centred, focusing on
  and structured around their interests and needs
• have carefully selected (usually young)
  facilitators and teachers
• are highly flexible

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• Off the Wall
• Highly disengaged youth
• An investigation and documentation of (legal)
  graffiti art and the history of the 3km art wall
  in Murwillumbah.
• Connections with TAFE Hip Hop youth project.
• Tony Lawrence community mentor
• Graffiti project at local highschool and Council
  water supply
• The project is moving/evolving in response to
  the movements/ issues of youth in the town
• My aim is to develop a complex net (network) so
  that when they (the youth) bounce, and they will,
  wherever they land there will be people they know
  and trust.

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• Byron travel and tourism project
• ACE, Links to Learning, Byron Youth Service
  collaboration
• Enterprise focus
• Development of individual personal career,
  business or project plan
• 11 work with local industry mentor
• Guest speakers and weekly activities
• Integrated literacy audit and intensive support
• Mapping back to a variety of Training Package
  units as applicable for individuals

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• Messages to date
• Some young people will not succeed in mainstream
  work-based or institutional VET pathways
• Rather than VET, the focus initially needs to be
  learning how to learn engaging young people in
  projects that are interesting and meaningful.
  They need to find themselves and to find a
  place in their community. They need an
  opportunity to feel valued and to feel good about
  themselves as learners to develop resilience
• There is a need for flexible part-time programs
  that are recognised and supported by agencies
• Programs must be holistic focusing on
  educational social/emotional aspects of their
  lives

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• Programs must be based on (and funded around)
  interdisciplinary teams. It helps if the
  teachers/ facilitators are young and
  multiskilled.
• Teachers need a support network they can draw on
  as issues arise (and they will) professional,
  legal, health, housing etc
• We need well resourced/ supported whole of
  government approaches (that dont allow
  buck-passing)
• Possibly the most logical body to own this
  network is local Council.
• A community based approach creates a security
  net across the community into which the young
  people can fall
• We need to create genuine pathways rather than
  program hopping situations