Providing Education and Training for At Risk ... - Victoria University

This approach helps the transition and ensures the return to school is as smooth and successfulas possible.Program leaders believe that the program is attractive to students because it offers a genuineopportunity to change and is structured to provide achievable challenges. Teamwork is a keyaspect of the program. Students interviewed for this project cited troubles at school and athome as reasons for joining the program. They identified teacher relationship, teacher ratio,assistance with social skills (get on with the world), and the fact that it is not in a school, asreasons for finding the program interesting and challenging.This is an off-site program that has considerable appeal and potential.TAFE/Community-linked programsThe Young Adults Industry Training Scheme (YAITS Program)Kangan Batman Institute of TAFEThe YAITS Program is funded as a literacy and numeracy program and run in the Departmentof Automotive. It targets students who have an interest in motor mechanics and have droppedout, or who are at risk of dropping out of school prior to achieving Year 10 level literacy andnumeracy. Students are generally referred by schools and welfare agencies. The studentsgenerally fall into the age range of 15-17 years. Older students with severe literacy problemshave participated but the coordinator believes that extending the age range in the groups makesit harder to achieve group cohesiveness.The program activities include nine hours of automotive studies and twelve hours of literacyand numeracy. As far as possible, the literacy and numeracy components are related to thestudents’ interest in motor mechanics. For example, ignition systems may be the focus forreading (eg. manuals) and comprehension. Most of the students ride bikes as their mode oftransport, so there are lots of opportunities for “good conversations about bikes”. The emphasison relevance of these classes is appreciated by the students, many of whom have a genuineinterest in improving their reading and writing skills as a step towards getting a qualificationand a job. They are typically young people who found little relevance in their school experiences.Although it is the automotive focus that attracts students to this program, it is the relaxed andadult-like learning environment that helps to keep them in the program. Many were turned offschool by rules that made little sense to them and teachers and principals who, from theirperspective, were inflexible in enforcing these rules. In this program “you don’t get into troublefor talking or smoking” and “the teachers treat you with respect”. However, although rules arekept to a minimum, there are strict rules about attendance and no fighting.Some of the students have short attention spans and this, coupled with low levels of confidencein literacy and numeracy, inevitably leads to them distracting or provoking others in the classesunless they are kept on task. This is achieved in the YAITS program by employing a tutor towork one-on-one with students. The coordinator claims this has made a significant differenceto dramatically increasing the literacy levels of some students. Individual recognition and46