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From the Desk of the CEO – June 2019 Newsletter Address

This week our TVET consultant, Bob Paton, travelled to Kenya to facilitate a workshop on TVET Systems, Competency Based Training, Governance, Monitoring and Evaluation organised by the Australian High Commission in Kenya and Sustainable Skills, which will take place in Nairobi from 24th-28th June and will be delivered to 20 local Government officers.

I am glad to introduce Clinton Glendinning who recently joined our team in Suva (Fiji) as Assessor Specialist for the ‘Head of School’ Skill Development Program awarded to Sustainable Skills in November 2018. Clinton has worked for over 36 years with the Department of Education Western Australia in a range of positions and has acted in the Fiji education sector for seven years. In the coming weeks, Clinton will provide additional value-add support to assist in the training and assessment of the selected Fijian Assessors who will be assessing all Modules that current and future Heads complete.

The Fiji project team recently ran an Implementation Facilitation workshop in Suva to ensure successful roll-out of the program. The two-day session involved all key project’s stakeholders including participants from Ministry of Education, Heritage and Arts (MEHA) Learning & Development, IT, HR teams, Development Advisors and external guests from other local institutions. An update on this project can be accessed here.

Between 1 and 12 July 2019, UNESCO-UNEVOC  International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, which assists Member States develop policies and practices concerning education for the world of work and skills development for employability, will organise a virtual conference on ‘Inclusion in technical and vocational education and training’ to discuss and identify suitable measures to support inclusive TVET, focussing on inclusion of people with disabilities as well as of other groups who are vulnerable to exclusion.

In line with the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Goal 4 on Quality Education aiming to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”, UNESCO has made equity and inclusion one of the three priority areas of its Strategy for TVET (2016-2021). The insights and evidence gathered in this virtual conference will also contribute to the 2020 UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring Report.

The virtual conference will take place on the UNESCO-UNEVOC TVeT Forum and can be accessed by registering for a UNEVOC account.

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From the Desk of the CEO – May 2019 Newsletter Address

Sustainable Skills CEO, Nigel Carpenter, with William Sabandar and Eka Simanjuntak in Jakarta, June 2019.

May has been a busy month at Sustainable Skills with a number of trips and promising announcements for our team.

Early this month, I met with William Sabandar, Director of the newly opened Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Jakarta, who wanted to discuss how our organisation can help develop TVET programs for the first underground railway system in Indonesia. Eka Simanjuntak, Managing Director of Willi Toisuta & Associates, our Indonesian collaborator, also joined the discussion. During the meeting, we drew on our previous experience as partner of the Sydney Metro Northwest rail link project, which between 2014 and 2016 saw our organisation working closely with Transport for NSW and major contractor to map the skilling needs of the project and create a transferable pool of workers to support the civil infrastructure and construction sectors.

A new exciting project will be managed by Sustainable Skills as we  recently signed a contract with the Australian High Commission in Kenya to deliver a week long workshop in Nairobi on the attributes of a best practice national TVET system, with a focus on governance and monitoring and evaluation. The workshop will be delivered at the end of June to 20 local Government TVET officials by our vocational education expert, Bob Paton, who has over 40 years’ experience across multiple industry sectors and has managed projects in Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, India, Vietnam, Korea, PRC, ROC, Thailand, the Philippines, Chile, Peru, Colombia, and Mexico.

In Uganda, we had a change in the team who is delivering the Due Diligence and Technical Evaluation project, with Simon Elsy being appointed as the Team Leader of the project sponsored by the World Bank. Over the past  two years, this role has been effectively managed by Lisa Giammarco. We thank Lisa for her outstanding contribution to the project and welcome Simon in this new exciting role.

We are proud to announce that our ‘Head of School’ Skill Development Program is highlighted as one of the five key results achieved by DFAT as part of the Australia’s aid program to Fiji. Our team of education experts is currently designing a 10-module online course to upskill current and future principles of over 900 schools in the Country, with the first module having been successfully trialled and development of all the modules about half completed.

Over the past two years, we have worked hard to create new business opportunities worldwide, resulting in our teams of TVET experts currently delivering projects in Fiji, Kenya, and Uganda, as well as in promising opportunities in Indonesia which we hope to share in the coming weeks.

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From the Desk of the CEO – November 2018 Newsletter Address

We are pleased to announce that following a successful tender process, this month Sustainable Skills signed a contract with Coffey International Development to deliver a ‘Head of School’ Skills Development Program for the Fijian Government, Ministry of Education, Heritage and Arts (MEHA). The program is funded by the Australian Government, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) through the Fiji Program Support Facility (FPSF) managed by Coffey.

Established to administer the education, health and scholarship programs in Fiji, the FPSF aid program supports the integration of crosscutting themes into programs, such as gender equality, civil society engagement, disability inclusiveness, child protection, and disaster risk reduction.

A review of selection processes for head of school positions in the Fijian Ministry of Education, Heritage and Arts (MEHA) had highlighted the need for a learning and development program covering the changing and higher level skills and abilities needed to lead and manage schools in to the future. As part of succession planning in the MEHA, the program will ensure that a pool of talent is developed, who can then successfully undertake the role of school head.

The vision is to develop leadership in schools which is dynamic and works effectively in a complex, changing environment, with the purpose of developing the skills and abilities of current and future school heads to provide excellent leadership and management for all schools.

The Sustainable Skills team in charge of delivering the project comprises Mike Prime, Team Leader, Cate van der Vossen, Assessment and Adult Education Specialist, and Maria Doyle, Online Learning Specialist. The three experts have been deployed to Suva, Fiji to kick-off the project which will be delivered over approximately six and a half months from November 2018 to May 2019.  The team will spend part of their time on site in Fiji consulting with stakeholders and part of their time working remotely from other locations.

The Project Team will use Moodle technology to create an online learning environment with ten modules that will be accessible to all interested learners. Moodle is an open-source learning platform designed to provide educators, administrators and learners with a single robust, secure and integrated system to create personalised learning environments.

The successful tender was managed and submitted by Lee Jackson, Director of International Development for Sustainable Skills. Our organisation has nearly twenty years’ experience shaping and maintaining TVET systems and frameworks in Australia and around the world, as well as assisting Governments with the implementation of successful TVET system based on Australia best practice. Sustainable Skills has the ability to mobilise highly skilled and well-suited local and international consultants able to take key principles of the Australian VET system, understand the local culture and develop solutions. We are excited to deliver this important project that will enhance the future leadership of schools, and contribute to the quality of education offered to school students in Fiji.

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