the best place to live - City of Greater Geelong

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www.geelongaustralia.com.au
OCTOBER 2008 the best place to live 19
A Fairfax Media Custom Publication
G21 teaches learning for life
Geelong’s G21
Alliance of
educators is
challenging the
idea that learning
only takes place
in the classroom
Taking a yoga class or tinkering
with a car are great
ways to learn, although
they might not fall under
traditional definitions of education.
They are also accessible at any
time of life.
The Smart Geelong Region
Local Learning and Employment
Network (LLEN) is seeking to
change the culture of learning by
promoting the idea that learning is
no longer confined to high-school
classrooms, university or TAFE but
is a lifelong experience.
“It’s not just about academic
pathways,” says the network’s executive
officer, Anne-Marie Ryan.
The G21 Alliance, a collection
of independent organisations committed
to securing a sustainable
future for the Geelong region, has
established an education and training
‘pillar’ that aims to broaden
people’s understanding of learning.
One of its challenges is to counter
the common perception that
learning can only occur within the
walls of an institution and has to
be difficult, leading to a dismissal
of more informal learning opportunities,
such as a son working on a
car with his father on the weekend.
“The community doesn’t see
that as learning,” says Ms Ryan,
who is also the leader of the pillar.
“We’ve got to break that stuff
down.”
She says the aim of the pillar is
for everyone to continue learning
throughout life. “Learning is about
all sorts of things. It’s about enrolling
in a yoga class so you’re getting
the health and wellbeing messages,
or even going and working as a
volunteer so you’re learning a
whole lot of new things.”
In the G21 region, about one in
three people go to university from
high school while a similar number
go from school into TAFE or apprenticeships
and traineeships. The
rest go straight into the employment
market.
Ms Ryan says that part of the
learn:
Central Geelong Marketing’s Emma Clark with colleague Jodii Pedersen: looking through the recently upgraded Westfield Geelong.
Back to school, and loving it
E
mma Clark never imagined studying beyond
year 12. “When I left school I was never, ever
going to study; I hated study, I was going to
go out and work and there was no way I was ever
going to set foot in a university,” she recalls.
But earlier this year the 38-year-old from
Torquay graduated from Deakin University with a
double degree in commerce and arts.
Ms Clark says the degree, which she completed
over six years with majors in marketing and public
relations, was instrumental in her obtaining a job
earlier this year as executive officer at Central
Geelong Marketing, the marketing subcommittee
of the City of Greater Geelong. “I wouldn’t have got
that without my degree ... I’m finding that what I’ve
G21 strategy iss about reconnecting
people who leave school to
enter the workforce with learning.
To that end, G21 is pushing for
the establishment of a Career and
Skills Development Centre, which
would provide a physical hub for
learning post-school.
“If we’re serious about lifelong
learning – which is really
just about multiple entry and exit
points into the system – then this
place needs to be front and centre,”
Ms Ryan says.
Such a centre would also help
those people who are looking at
finding a new career path as a
result of workplace change.
As well as expanding the definition
of learning, the Education and
learnt at uni is certainly helping me with what I’m
doing in the workplace now.”
Ms Clark worked in several retail and
administration roles since completing year 12 at
Toorak College in Mt Eliza in 1987, including a
cadetship with Myer and, more recently, positions
at the Australian Cricket Board and Geelong
Football Club. But she made the decision to return
to study to open up a greater range of career
opportunities. “I was just finding I couldn’t break
out of that admin [role] into the next step of
management. I really felt that to do that, I needed
to go and get a degree.”
Ms Clark, who was working full-time when she
made the decision, says it wasn’t an easy choice
Training Pillar also aims to bring
together members of the education,
training and employment sectors to
improve links between them.
One of the projects the pillar
has undertaken, in conjunction
with Deakin University and the
Smart Geelong Region LLEN, is
the introduction of a new teacher
education course. The Graduate
Diploma of Education (Applied
Learning) will train a new kind
of teacher, with a professional or
trade background, to bring their
skills and knowledge into the
classroom to provide a more direct
link between the education sector
and industry.
There is also a drive for better
integration of the education and
Industry standard facilities at its state-of-the-art campuses mean Gordon Institute
students receive real workplace experience.
training programs provided by the
many organisations in the Geelong
region, including Deakin University,
the Gordon Institute of TAFE
and Marcus Oldham College; as
well as adult and community education
providers such as Geelong
Adult Training and Education
(GATE), Colac Adult and Community
Education and the University
of the Third Age.
To that end GATE, which offers
courses ranging from Certificate II
level through to Advanced Diplomas
across a range of subjects as
well as adult community education
courses, recently announced
a merger with fellow training
provider Diversitat.
Leonie O’Neill, the outgoing
given the financial implications – a factor she and
her husband Nicholas had to consider again 18
months later when he also decided to return to
study (he will complete a commerce degree later
this year).
But Ms Clark says the sacrifice has been worth
it, adding that although marketing and PR-related
subjects have direct application to her job, she also
found herself enjoying other, more obscure subjects.
“It was actually really nice to do that; it taught me
a different way to think.”
Although Ms Clark initially thought this would
be the last time she returned to study, she says she
had so enjoyed the experience that a postgraduate
degree is not out of the question.
chief executive of GATE, says the
merger is changing the old system
of training providers being confined
to their own niche. She says
ongoing learning “opens people,
opens doors, opens lives”.
“I think when people continue
to learn, it supports them in so
many ways; not just intellectually,
it supports them socially as well,
because they’re creating new networks,
they’re meeting new people,
they’re interacting with people that
they wouldn’t have had to interact
with before.”
a www.sgrllen.com.au
www.gate.vic.edu.au
www.colacace.com.au
www.u3ageelong.org.au