May 2016
In this issue
2. Australian Workplace Practitioners' Network (AWPN) webinar
Setting up workers for success webinar - a fireside chat with John Molenaar and Tony Lane
3. Literacy and Numeracy Studies - new issue
4. National Foundation Skills Strategy (NFSS) Project
5. 2016 Australian Training Awards
6. Literacy for Life Foundation - Cuba to NSW
7. Resilience - Stories of Adult Learning
1. From the President
The Australian Council for Adult Literacy welcomed over 500 delegates to the ACAL ACTA International Conference 2016, Diversity: exchanging ways of being. ACAL was pleased to be a co-host of this joint conference that gave us opportunities to exchange experiences and professional skills to build upon our approaches to language, literacy and numeracy education. This year we were pleased to support an Indigenous teacher to attend the conference.
Below are the percentages of survey respondents who indicated that they either Strongly Agreed or Agreed with the following statements;
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94% The keynote speakers presented on topics of interest to me.
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93% The program offered me a selection of relevant workshops.
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94% The quality of presentations was high.
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96% I had the opportunity to network with peers.
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95% I feel satisfied that the conference made a relevant contribution to my professional learning.
Thank you to the members of the Western Australian Adult Literacy Council, Westralian Association for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Australian Council of TESOL Associations and the Australian Council for Adult Literacy for their joint work in preparing this successful conference.
On behalf of ACAL I visited Canberra and met with the Dept. of Education and Training (SEE and VET Fee-Help sections) and the Back Bench Education Committee.
We are now busy organising this year's webinars and ACAL 2017 in Darwin so start planning to attend what will be a great conference in a gorgeous place.
ACAL has recently sent letters to Senator the Hon Simon Birmingham, Minister for Education, Senator the Hon Scott Ryan Minister for Vocational Education and Skills (in conjunction with AWPN), Senator McKenzie, Back Bench Education Committee (summarising priorities discussed in Canberra meeting). We have also sent a letter and a position paper to the major political parties. State associations may care to prepare a similar letter.
Please feel free to email me at info@acal.edu.au if you would like to ask a question or make a suggestion.
Jenni Anderson
2. Australian Workplace Practitioners' Network (AWPN) webinar
Setting up workers for success webinar - a fireside chat with John Molenaar and Tony Lane
Understanding a learner's needs, including LLN skill development needs and providing appropriate support are important to student success. Ensuring that the learner is enrolled in an appropriate course and has the ability to complete the course is vital to the student success. LLN support needs are usually associated with a diversity of other learning difficulties that the learner may face. It is important to understand what these are.
Both state and national RTO regulators and state RTO funding regulators have specific compliance requirements to ensure that the learner is adequately protected and that quality training and assessment services are provided. An understanding of these requirements and how the compliance requirements can be met are essential to setting up students for success and meeting compliance requirements.
Tuesday, 24th May at 1pm AEST.
Online for 1 hour
Fee: $50 plus GST, includes live participation plus access to audio and video recordings of the webinar.
3. Literacy and Numeracy Studies - new issue
A new issue of Literacy and Numeracy Studies: An international journal in the education and training of adults has been published.
Vol 24, No 1 (2016)
Table of Contents
Editorial Keiko Yasukawa
Articles
Workforce Development Rhetoric and the Realities of 21st Century Capitalism - Erik Jacobson
Vocational Literacy in Mozambique: Historical Development, Current Challenges and Contradictions - Oleg Popov, Alzira Manuel
Predictors of English Health Literacy among U.S. Hispanic Immigrants: The importance of language, bilingualism and sociolinguistic environment - Holly E. Jacobson, Lauren Hund, Francisco Soto Mas
Refractions
Challenging a Statistic: Why should we accept that 60 percent of adult Australians have low health literacy? - Stephen Black
4. National Foundation Skills Strategy (NFSS) Project
Project activity has now wrapped up, but the website for the National Foundation Skills Strategy Project has been updated to provide easy access to the project's resources and reports.
Have you caught up with these items?
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Videos and case studies highlighting effective approaches to foundation skills delivery
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Draft Foundation Skills Professional Standards Framework
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Knowledge sharing and networking on the FSTeach Facebook Group
5. 2016 Australian Training Awards
Applications close on Tuesday 31 May 2016.
The Awards recognise the outstanding achievements of apprentices, trainees, vocational students, training practitioners, businesses, secondary schools and registered training organisations for their contribution to skilling Australia.
Find out if you are eligible to apply for the Australian Training Awards direct entry categories:
Individual
Registered Training Organisation
The 2016 Australian Training Awards will be held in Darwin on Thursday 17 November 2016.
6. Literacy for Life Foundation - Cuba to NSW
The Literacy for Life Foundation's Aboriginal adult literacy campaign is continuing in western NSW, and gaining more momentum. Four communities have participated to date, with two more planning to join in 2016.
As at March 2016, 103 community members have graduated from the Cuban Yes I Can classes, a retention rate of 69%. Campaign leader Jack Beetson was recently recognised by the Cuban government for his work, and the campaign received a lot of positive media.
Interested ACAL members can access interviews and video of the campaign at the following links:
Regular updates on the campaign are also posted on the Foundations website, http://www.lflf.org.au/
7. Resilience - Stories of Adult Learning
We would like to express enormous gratitude to all the learners and teachers who have braved the challenges of writing for a public audience. Looking at both Australia and the UK we have received over 100 stories from people whose lives have been enriched by adult learning. Over in the UK, Tara is investigating new accessible ways to publish these stories in multiple formats including via the web, and over here we'll also be posting extracts via the project Facebook presence.
To stay in touch, go Like our page Resilience: Stories of Adult Learning] facebook.com/learnResilience