Newsletter

Stick with me this week because you might think I’m completely off-topic. One of the advantages of monthly subscription to music services on smartphones is the ability to explore at little cost one’s eclectic taste. I suspect some revert to 70s and 80s music probably for the memories of a slimmer waistline, and an actual hairline.

Relax – breathe deep, loosen every muscle, sink into your inner soul. Roam in your mind for those thoughts that recur. Turn them and tumble them in your consciousness. Be alert to the one thing that keeps coming to you. Think through all the circumstances in your life when this thought was dominant. What events trigger that thought? What’s common in those events? Think deep. Hone those thoughts. Dissect and discern. Practice openness, it brings you a new perspective!

Welcome to the 2020 tertiary education year. I suspect many of us are returning with a different sense of priority after the calamities of our Australian summer – which is not yet over!

Season’s greeting to all of you from the staff at TAFE Directors Australia, the board and our TAFE leaders across the country.  After a tumultuous 2019 we look to 2020 for substantive change, as that is our mission.

In Beijing last week I was asked by a British ex-pat now living in Washington and an Aussie living in England if I was confident about the future of vocational education in Australia. Admittedly, I had just been lamenting the poor participation levels in the sector and praising the clear enthusiasm for vocational education in China.

It was pleasing to see Skills ministers agree Friday week ago to review VET Student Loans.

With Craig currently tending to his garden and in my final week at TDA I was asked to take over his column and reflect on all things international. That also means no stories, no analogies, no poems and no April Fool’s Day jokes… …..or does it?  (It’s nigh on impossible to work for Craig without learning a little.)

Good evening. My name is Craig Robertson and I’m your host this evening. Welcome to this special night and let’s introduce our special guests.

Have you ever measured the progress in your life by tracking your TVs?

The longstanding debate in my household has been the resources my wife and I brought to our marriage and how we each contribute to family life. OK, confession time. I entered the marriage with debt and my wife didn’t, and I’d been working for some time! How we shared the responsibilities for getting the kids to school still causes some mirth. Imagine the tears from my then seven year-old daughter relying on me to fix her precious long hair for school when a pony-tail was the limit of my dexterity.

The Education and Employment Senate Committee was told last week that TAFE represents 19 per cent of VET in Australia, echoing a comment made previously by the Prime Minister. I repeat, 19 per cent!

Interesting week in the politics of TAFE, at least for Canberra watchers like me.

Education in Australia is awash with reviews. Political discourse would say it is governments at action stations. If there’s little coordination at the front line of action chances of success are limited, I would have thought, although progress on the odd battlefront isn’t something to be scoffed at here in Australia.

This week marks a year since the successful Congress of the World Federation of Colleges and Polytechnics on the banks of the Yarra at the Melbourne Convention Centre. Over 850 delegates, some 250 from overseas, including over 30 young people at a leadership retreat at the Lilydale campus of Box Hill TAFE.

This past weekend marks the end of my AFL inspired analogies, at least for the next 25 weeks, or 171 days, or 4,116 hours till the 2020 season kicks off.