School: Warrnambool College
Partner: Southwest Industries
Warrnambool College is a regional government school located in south-west Victoria. As a successful school looking to provide relevant, empowering and engaging learning experiences for students, the college identified the need to provide local students with the opportunity to experience the broad range of exciting graduate career options available to them in major industries in south-west Victoria.
To provide for these opportunities, the school is developing a new Vocational Education and Training (VET) course that will allow students to get hands on experience in sustainable and emerging technologies. Students will gain this experience by undertaking real and relevant projects with a number of local industries. Warrnambool College has approached a number of industries who are able to provide work placements for students, and who are interested in providing advice on the content and structure of the proposed course. The new course will also address industry concerns specific to the region. Local industries have had difficulty attracting skilled personnel, particularly suitable candidates for engineering and science positions who are willing to relocate to south-west Victoria.
The school–community partnership envisaged is aimed at developing science and technology skills in senior secondary school students that are relevant to these major industries . The long-term goal of the program is to establish a workforce skilled in sustainable and emerging technologies that will benefit the south-west Victorian region. By developing the partnership it is hoped to demonstrate to students the huge potential for rewarding careers in science and technology, in particular those relevant to industries. Students will be given a broader range of higher education options, gain practical hands-on experience on real industry projects, and be exposed to emerging technologies on the cusp of industry development.
The new VET course will initially be offered at Warrnambool College. Once established, the course could then be offered at schools across Australia. The course will have a duration of two years and will provide students with a Certificate II qualification. An on-site work placement will be part of the course, culminating in a Capstone Project that involves students using skills gained to improve performance in some aspect of their chosen industry.
The organisations that have been approached include The Midfield Group, GlaxoSmithKline, the Department of Sustainability and Environment, Wannon Water, Portland Aluminium, South West Sustainability Partnership and WestVic Dairy. The school and partners hope to maintain an ongoing commitment through workplace or work-shadow opportunities for students. To date, the need for such a course has been confirmed though contact with local council and local industries, and preliminary planning and resources have been gathered. The steering committee for the project held its inaugural meeting in November 2009 and it is anticipated that the first students to enrol will commence the course at the start of Semester 1 in 2011.
