Leaving a Legacy in the Desert

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Leaving a Legacy in the Desert

• Alicia Boyle
• Education Coordinator
• Desert Knowledge CRC

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Overview

• A desert legacy
• Our initiatives
• Students
• Youth
• Postgraduate courses in Desert Science
• Specialist industry training programs
• Desert education research
• Questions

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The desert legacy of the DK-CRC

• Tomorrows desert leaders and researchers
• Building the knowledge base about deserts through
  education, training and capacity exchange
  activities

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Students Postgraduate

• 24 PhDs 5 Aboriginal candidates
• All students have both academic and industry
  supervisors
• Are affiliated with DK-CRC Core Projects
• Scholarship support can include stipend, top-up
  and/or operating funds, plus additional support
  to attend conferences and workshops
• 2 Masters and 3 Honours students
• Additional scholarships for PhD candidates,
  Masters and Honours currently on offer

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StudentsNew postgraduate scholarships available

• Demand for and economic valuation of desert
  livelihoods
• Bush tomato biology
• Economic modelling of
• 4WD tourism
• animal production performance in rangelands
• desert businesses
• Management tools to understand desert settlement
  sustainability
• Facilitating desert settlement futures
• Service delivery to Aboriginal settlements in WA
  and SA

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StudentsUndergraduate and Vocational

• Undergraduate
• Aboriginal Cadetships
• Vacation Scholarships
• Vocational
• Australian Apprentices (Trainees)
• Community-based researchers

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Students Support activities

• Annual forum
• Website, informal gatherings and peer support
  networks
• Profiling students for desert employment

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Youth Deadly Desert Research

• Partnering with Gap Youth Centre
• Yr 10-11 Aboriginal students from across desert
  NT using state-of-the-art online collaborative
  project tools to undertake, manage, promote and
  report on a research project,
• full time coordinator, local mentors and DK-CRC
  research staff
• will develop an Aboriginal Youth research toolkit
• Aligned with the NT Curriculum Framework and
  generic competencies

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Youth Polly Farmer Partnerships for Success

• Partners with key industries and the education
  department to offer elite Aboriginal students an
  opportunity to excel in either academic pursuits
  or sport
• Existing program in WA
• Port Augusta the first project outside WA to
  undertake an associated research project
• UniSA Whyalla campus will lead this DK-CRC
  research

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Youth Desert Knowledge in Schools

• Linking DK-CRC research to school science
  programs through 2 DEST funded Australian School
  Innovation in Science, Technology and Mathematics
  (ASISTM) projects
• DK-CRC desert resource kit

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Postgraduate courses in Desert Science

• Graduate Certificate, Graduate Diploma and
  Masters in Desert Science
• Linking existing desert knowledge and DK-CRC
  research
• Graduate Certificate 2007
• Characteristics and Methodologies of Desert
  Research
• Interpreting Australian Deserts

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Draft structure for postgraduate courses in
Desert Science
Units in the Graduate Diploma and Masters Courses
yet to be finalised in name and content
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Specialist industry training programs

• Internal professional development activities
• A range of specialist industry training programs
  will be developed
• Market assessment to be undertaken
• Decision on extent and nature of training will be
  determined by this assessment

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Desert education research

• NCVER - Growing the Desert Effective
• educational pathways for remote Indigenous
• people
• Reframing the Future - Central Australian
• Education and Training Network (CAETN)
• A community of practice across Central Australia
• Developing members capabilities to ensure
  provision of Aboriginal demand-responsive
  education and training
• Brings together all public and private providers,
  job network agencies, government departments and
  others

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Questions

• Alicia Boyle
• Education Coordinator
• Desert Knowledge CRC
• alicia.boyle_at_cdu.edu.au