Monthly Archives: September 2017

This week, Fairfax economics columnist Ross Gittins wrote an opinion piece on educational challenges facing Australia’s young people: “The young are mostly right, they are getting a bad deal”, Sydney Morning Herald, 20 September 2017. Much of what Gittins writes about vocational education and training (VET) in Australia is so correct that it is worth...

The South Australian Government has recognised the significant value that adult and community education (ACE) brings to the state. A new government statement, entitled Adult Community Education Program Statement: A Strong ACE Program for 2018-19 and Beyond, has just been published by the SA Department of State Development. In releasing the Statement last week, the...

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The Australian Catholic Bishops’ Social Justice Statement for 2017–18, Everyone’s Business: Developing an Inclusive and Sustainable Economy, has been released. Each year the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference issues a major statement for the coming year, on Social Justice Sunday (the last Sunday in September). This year’s statement calls for “an...

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Community Colleges Australia (CCA) has called for a national training policy to get Australians back to work. “It’s time to get serious about reducing Australia’s unemployment rate,” Dr Don Perlgut, CCA CEO, has written in today’s blog post, entitled “Let’s Get Serious About Reducing Unemployment: We Need a National Training Policy that Gets...

This week, CCA CEO Dr Don Perlgut attended the TAFE Directors Australia (TDA) Conference in Adelaide, where he presented about leveraging economic development through VET. In this blog post, Don reflects on some of the messages arising from the conference. He observes that a while ago, Tim Costello (World Vision Australia CEO), proposed that...

The picture emerging from Community Colleges Australia’s (CCA’s) recent Annual Conference shows a community education sector exhibiting great innovation, flexibility and responsiveness, a real standard-bearer for ethical education with a high degree of professionalism. The sector manages to combine these attributes with a strong ability to work with vulnerable and disadvantaged Australians. Held in Melbourne...