On The World Stage

Posted by Community Colleges NZ on 22 July 2015 | 0 Comments

Tags: Community Colleges New Zealand, Southland, North Canterbury, Marlborough, Nelson, South Canterbury, Dunedin

Beryl Wilcox, manager Community College Southland was very fortunate to be selected to present her research findings at the 24th National Vocational Education and Training Research Conference at the University of Western Sydney on 6-8 July 2015. While most of the attendees were from Australia, there were others from New Zealand, China, Afghanistan and the United Kingdom.

The conference was titled ‘No Frills’ and focused on the key themes of Youth, Pathways and Skills which fitted well with our Community College focus in foundation education. Topics of note included the issues of empowering youth to make well informed choices for learning; navigating the future of changing and non-linear pathways; and ensuring skills learned are relevant for job outcomes and what employers value.

It was good to review the research recommendations for Community College and note both the gains that we have made, and also the interest by conference attendees in our response to the students’ voice.