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REGIONAL VISITS BY BOARD
The Board of Vocational Education and Training is strongly committed to ‘getting out and about’ to see vocational education and training in action.
Board members value the chance to meet face-to-face with students, teachers and businesspeople and hear first hand about their skill needs.
VISIT TO BALLINA, FAR NORTH COAST
In February the Board visited Ballina.
Last year Ballina High School won the National Training Award for VET in Schools Excellence. The school delivers a ‘mind-boggling’ range of vocational courses for its students, including marine industries and aquaculture, aviation, automotive, building and construction, child care, entertainment, tourism and hospitality.
The school also offers a vocationally oriented two-year program, called the Gateway Senior Program, for students who may otherwise think of leaving school early. In this program students from Years 11 and 12 study Work Studies; Driver Education; Marine Studies; Sport, Recreation and Lifestyle; Workplace Literacy and Numeracy and Do-it-Yourself skills. They also have the opportunity to obtain credentials for skills such as boating, scuba-diving, aviation, lifesaving and first aid.
VISIT TO ENTERTAINMENT SKILLS CENTRE, SYDNEY SECONDARY COLLEGE
In May the Board toured the new Entertainment Skills Centre at Sydney Secondary College Blackwattle Bay Campus. The Board had endorsed the provision of Federal funding for the Skills Centre.
Formerly Glebe High School, and now the Year 11-12 senior arm of the College, the school, with its attractive harbourside campus, trees, playing fields and award-winning architecture, has recently received a $6.4 million refurbishment. It also has pleasant new support facilities for students with intellectual and physical disability and Board members met students with disability who were preparing a meal as part of their HSC Hospitality course.
The Entertainment Skills Centre facilities which were the focus of the Board’s visit consist of a large performance space with sophisticated lighting and audio equipment, and a purpose-built studio theatre, together with a multi-media centre equipped with Apple computers and top-of-the-line music and visual media software. The facilities provide superb opportunities for students taking the new HSC Entertainment Industry course to display their creativity and hone their technical skills. Board members enjoyed the vibrancy and admired the professionalism of the video clip sample of student work played for them by student Alex Parissi-Smyth in the studio theatre.
Members were very impressed with the range of strong academic and vocational programs Sydney Secondary College Blackwattle Bay Campus offers senior students in the Sydney area.
The Board is planning visits to the Central Coast and Dubbo later in the year.
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Board members in Film Studio Theatre at the Entertainment Skills Centre, Sydney Secondary College, Blackwattle Bay.
From left to right:
Board member Bill Wooldridge; Campus Principal Jill Collier; Department of Education and Training Regional Director Sydney Phil Lambert; Head, Arts, Denise Nicola; Student Alex Parissi-Smyth; Chairman Bert Evans, AO; Head, Technology, Mike Fullerton; College Principal Doreen Wilson and Board member Kevin Power.
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