000 - TAFE Portfolio - Hosted Conferences

AVETRA OctoberVET event

Date: Nov 20, 2008
Attendees: Heather MacLeod and Sue Goodbourn

• This was a research event organised by the School of Education, Dean of Graduate Studies and TDU. OctoberVET is a national event with organisations around Australia hosting activities. Our event involved three key speakers, discussion groups, and an opportunity for participants to discuss their research area of interest.

AFO Training, Awards Evening & Roll out of Operational Guidelines 

Date:
Attendees: Allyson Dovaston and Peter Morey (Univeristy of Ballarat) 
Main Points: (Paper to be provided)

AVETRA Conference

Date: April 2008 Adelaide
Attendees: Sue Goodbourn and Heather McLeod (TAFE Development Unit)
Website: AVETRA
Main Points:

• There are various papers which were presented at the AVETRA 2008 Conference currently available on the AVETRA website. 

• Heather MacLeod advised that Erica Smith, Dean of Graduate Studies and Professor of Education at UB, is the new President of AVETRA.

ConVerge 2008

Date: December 4 - 5, 2008
Location: William Angliss Institute
Attendees: Pam Woodward, Nola Burgess, Rheinard Korf, Steve Linguist, Steve Blomeley, Anna Morton, Ray Williams

The fourth annual Victorian e-learning conference, conVerge 08, is designed to enhance e-learning opportunities within VET, community and business environments.

The conVerge 08 theme is partnering innovation - with:

• keynote and featured speakers

• hands on workshops

• presentations from the most recently funded projects

• industry experts on e-learning in business

• managing and leading change

• tools and technologies

• enhancing teaching and empowering learners

• preparing learning materials.

Resources: http://www.eworks.edu.au/converge/join_session.htm

“Edna and Me Tour” – Mini Conference

Education Network Australia (edna) is a free online network which promotes the benefits of technology in education and training. The aim of the workshop was to provide educators and trainers with a chance to learn more about edna and its services such as recent technologies including social software tools and easy ways to embed ICT in teaching and learning.

Where: State Library of Victoria 
Date: 22 May 2008 
Attendees: Pam Woodward and Debra Cummins (TAFE Development Unit)
Website: Edna and Me Tour
Main Points: 

• The keynote speaker was Associate Professor, Ian Brown who is currently Associate Dean Undergraduate, Faculty of Education, University of Wollongong. Ian’s presentation topic was “Framing Your Digital Future” and he talked about the contents of the “Horizon Report”, YouTube, Flickr, etc. and the challenges facing today’s educators such as the lack of equitable resources across schools, technical support and lack of time for teachers to “play and experiment”.

• What is edna? It is a large repository referencing thousands of online resources for education, training and research. The resources are organised into the five education sectors: Early Childhood, Schools, Vocational Education and Training, Adult and Community, and Higher Education. edna’s collaborative tools include social networking (edna Groups) and easy to use online email lists (edna Lists), and now social networking with me.edu.au - an online professional network where educators can identify their professional interests, join communities and network with colleagues.

• Edna is managed by Education.au Limited and is a joint initiative of the state, territory and federal governments.

Fast Tracking Apprenticeships Project (VISTA)

Date: 
Attendees: Trudy Cunningham (TAFE Development Unit)
Website: VISTA Homepage
Main Points:

• Trudy Cunningham spoke to the major push last year to fast track apprenticeships and reported that it is currently happening in Engineering. Commented that private providers are way ahead! 

• Series of workshops showcasing good practices are to be run by the TAFE Development Centre. 

• Trudy Cunningham reported that she had recommended Jill Coote (Hospitality) to the TDC as an example of good practice and Jill has been asked to present to all seven sessions being conducted around Victoria at the end of April/May.

IPOL Sustainability Training

Date: Nov 26, 2008
Attendee: Phil Greenbank attended

Integrating Employability Skills

Date: Nov 13 2008
Attendee: Heather MacLeod

•  The event was conducted by the TDC. Reinforced that Employability Skills are now embedded in training packages and that we should help support students to gather evidence of them.
• Also highlighted the need to connect with industry to ensure delivery and assessment incorporates current industry practice, and that the method of capturing employability skills evidence is relevant to industry.  

Innovations Victoria (AFLF) Project Leaders Induction Workshop 

Attendees: Sue Goodbourn (TAFE Development Unit) and Gayle (GRHANet) 
Main Points: 

• Sue reported that UB TAFE was successful in gaining funding for an e-learning project which will trial the network link between GRHANet and UB. 

• This workshop was to clarify ‘the rules’ under which the parties would be working and the outcomes expected. 

• Pam Woodward will be the project leader working with Health Professionals in the Grampians region and the Departments of IT and L&M.

Learning Technologies Conference

Date: Nov 5-7, 2008
Attendees: Sue Goodbourn and Pam Woodward
Papers available: http://www.learningtechnologies.com.au/index.cfm

Leadership Development Program 
A group of ~ 25 people from many TAFE institutes assembled to complete the 2nd week of the Leadership Development Program Chair Academy (VU). 

Date: 11 – 16 May 2008 
Attendees: Pam Woodward (TAFE Development Unit)
Main Points:

•  During this week the group undertook many activities, involved in small and large group discussions around many topics; Strengths assessment (tool), working with people's strengths, interviewing strategies, 

• The workshop was very beneficial and enabled much reflection on how to work with people and teams by building on the individual strengths to achieve common goals.

• Pam submitted a document addressing many points in an Individualised plan (IPDP) so will be credited with some units from the Grad Dip leadership & Education.

NCVER “No Frills” Conference Launceston

Date: 9 to 11 July 2008
Attendee: Heather MacLeod
Website: NCVER
Main Points: Heather's Conference Report (doc)

NCVER VET Research Community of Practice Workshop 
The National Centre for Vocational Education and Research (NCVER) is trying to build Australia’s VET research capacity. In 2007 the NCVER announced scholarships to provide places in a Community of Practice (CoP) for VET practitioners who wanted to develop research skills. Eleven people were selected for the Community of Practice from around Australia, with Sue Goodbourn and Heather MacLeod selected from UB.

Date: 13 & 14 May 2008
Attendees: Heather MacLeod and Sue Goodbourn (TAFE Development Unit)
Website: NCVER
Main Points: 
- The CoP involves attendance at workshops, and the allocation of an experienced mentor from the Australian Vocational Education Training Research Association (AVETRA). The expectation is that the participants will present a research proposal, and then undertake the research with the aim of publishing a paper with the NCVER in 2009.

- Victoria University is the host of the CoP and conducted a two day seminar on research skills for the participants. The seminar included the following topics: 

• Setting the scene in Australian VET research; Practical research considerations; 

• Sources and resources; 

• Writing a proposal; Mentors and mentoring and 

• Writing an action plan and timelines

Reframing the Future Conference

Date: Nov 17-18, 2008
Attendee: Lyndall Cooper-Smith
Resources: The concurrent session and keynote speaker presentations are now available on the website http://www.reframingthefuture.net/NWOW5_Nov08.asp

Reframing the Future – Start-Up Workshop – Community of Practice (COP) 

Date: 8th May 2008, Melbourne 
Attendees: Lyndall Cooper-Smith (TAFE Development Unit)
Website (Internal):
Main Points:

• 497 applications for funding were received by Reframing the Future 

• 212 RTF projects were funded including 

• 38 Communities of Practice.

• UB TAFE has a RTF, RPL CoP this year. 

• Morning Session: Getting to know Your Community of Practice. Introduction of Project Facilitators and their project scope. 

• Afternoon Session: How to Cultivate a Community of Practice, what’s required to be included in CoP Action Plan, significant project dates, recommended further reading

Restorative Practice (UBTec) 

Date: 23 April 2008 
Attendees: Sue Goodbourn (TAFE Development Unit)
Main Points:

• Sue reported that the UBTec ran a workshop for all their staff and TSM using an external facilitator to introduce the concept of student management using Restorative Practice techniques. 

• UB Tec staff will be trialling these techniques in 2008. See Sue for notes if interested. 

• Feedback from the UBTec staff will be sought at the end of the year to ascertain the effectiveness of this program.

School Leavers Destination Seminar

Date: Nov 26, 2008
Attendee: Steve Linquist
Outline available: http://www.edu.monash.edu.au/research/seminars/show.php?id=3581&archive=true

Senior Leadership Development Day Session 2

Date: Nov 14, 2008
Attendee: Sue Goodbourn and Peter Morey
Resources available: http://www.ballarat.edu.au/ipol/resources.php

TDU and IPOL Evaluation Workshop

Date: Nov 24, 2008
Attendees: Pam Woodward, Lyndall Cooper-Smith, Sue Goodbourn, Heather MacLeod and Leonie Benson

• This was a good opportunity to meet with LEWS and IPOL staff.

TAFE Innovations Showcase
Victorian TAFE colleges had an opportunity to showcase their partnerships with industry, focussing on innovative delivery.

Date: 15 May, 2008, Melbourne
Attendees: Lyndall Cooper-Smith, Sue Goodbourn (TAFE Development Unit)
Website: Highlights of the Showcase
Main Points:

• Victoria University and The Furnishing Industry Association Of Australia (FIAA); (Presentation)

• Swinburn Unviversity (TAFE Division) and AFL Sportsready;  (Presentation)

• Kangan Batman Institute and Robert Bosch;  (Presentation)

• Kangan Batman Institute /Automotive Centre Of Excellence (ACE) and PPG;  (Presentation)

• William Angliss Institute and Compass Group, Wodonga Institute and Moira Healthcare Alliance;  (Presentation)

• Box Hill Institute and Paleotechnology - For example: VU showcased their Furnishing & Boat Building Apprentices. The program they offer differs in that the apprentice has to choose, plan and construct a piece of furniture, to customer specifications. Teaching in their model is centred around problem solving. The apprentices are taught underpinning knowledge skills as needed to complete their piece of furniture.  (Presentation)

• Both Sue and I picked up on the strong message in this presentation that in TAFE we use a lot of jargon, even our self paced notes are labelled in large letters and numbers, which is the code and title of the unit (AQTF requirement), but this information is meaningless to the employer and apprentice, yet we allow it to dominate.

Video Conference Series – George Siemens

Date: Nov 10, 2008
Attendee: Pam Woodward
Overview available: http://learntelevents.blogspot.com/2007/05/george-siemens-videoconference-in.html (Click on 2008 icon)

VET NETWORK Conference

Date: Oct 2008
Attendee: Trudy Cunningham
Location: Sydney

• Very informative Conference this year

• 1st & 2nd days - all whole of Conference Speakers

• Matt Church: spoke about Work Life Balance, Motivating drivers, how to keep motivated and how to motivate others. How to keep the right mindset and improve our student’s choices for the future. Play to strengths and work with other people’s strengths Note: An Information Kit has been ordered by the SMB library and should be available soon.

• Michael McQueen: spoke about Gen Y and why they do they things they do, how they learn, how to connect with them & what boundaries to establish o Helen McLaren: DEWAAR - presentation of VETiS Stats

• Jackie Fury: spoke about success at work & the significance of work in our personal lives

• Industry Panel: What Industry wants and how do we prepare our students for work

• Jim Bright: spoke about how career landscapes are changing & work & the meaning of work is changing – how to prepare ourselves & our students o There were also many small presentations from successful students who had made outstanding transitions into work. One point that was made over & over was how Worldskills had made an impact on them as a “light bulb” event & had led onto excelling in their school programs & work. Many had gone on to win Training Awards, Scholarships & prizes

• 3rd Day was workshops – the ones I attended were:

1. NCVER Research on Designing authentic learning Tasks – (project based) and developing skills in context. Using the workplace as primary source of learning and applying e learning technologies for communication, resources and portfolio evidence.

2. WORK MATTERS: A demonstration of an interactive DVD designed to guide students through work placement. This was a great tool & I have referred this on to Jannine Bennett and the LLEN for us to obtain this resource.

3. COLLABORATION - SCHOOL TO INDUSTRY PRESENTATION: Also a great presentation about getting Industries to get involved at the school level – coming in to work with students on projects. The project presented was a landscaping contractor, working with a group of students to build a garden at a school.

Outstanding things I came home with

• All conference delegates were given a USB stick with the power points presentations of all the speakers & VET NETWORK contacts and website details – A great resource

• One of the presentations featured a VETiS video of the students undertaking VETiS activities (eg marking lambs, cooking pancakes) a way of marketing VETiS in a way that would appeal to the YGen cohort – I have requested a copy for us to consider in partnership with the LLEN

• Work Matters Interactive DVD – as stated above – hopefully UBTEC & LLEN will purchase this and use it to prepare students for work placements

• The Conference Program – all in spiral bound A4 book with room for notes – brilliant

• And I’m a better person all round!!!

Victorian TAFE Staff Development Network (VTSDN)

Date: 27 June 2008
Attendees: Heather MacLeod
Location: GO TAFE Shepparton
VTSDN Country Meeting Meeting Report (doc)

 VISTA Event ‘Securing Jobs for the Future’ 

Date: 20 October 2008
Attendees: Pam Woodward and Lyndall Cooper-Smith
Location: Melbourne

VRQA Credit Matrix Seminar
The VRQA hosted a seminar on using the Credit Matrix in developing credit transfer and articulation between vocational education and training (VET) and higher education qualifications. 

Date: 16 may 2008 
Attendees: Heather MacLeod, Leonie Benson and Sue Goodbourn (TAFE Development Unit)
Website: For copies of the presentations and the latest report on the Box Hill and Deakin trial, go to the VRQA Credit Matrix Newsletter. http://www.vision6.com.au/em/mail/view.php?id=680408333&k=250cb89
Main Points: 

• DEEWR is very interested in the Credit Matrix as VET pathways are becoming more significant due to the need to register pathways in diplomas and advanced diploma to be eligible for VET Fee Help. 

• VRQA is working on “levelling” VET units so the main work for institutes using the Credit Matrix will be at the higher education end 

• Deakin University felt the Credit Matrix was of value in determining credit, but not a simple solution. 

• Credit matrix required collaboration from both parties.