Creating jobs and linking with community – a long term plan

On Thursday 1 December, the The Hon Peter Hall MLC, Minister for Higher Education and Skills, Minister responsible for the Teaching Profession handed the keys to a new sustainable house at Selandra Rise in Clyde North to a third year apprentice and cut the ribbon launching MEGT’s Greenhouse project.

The house is one of six affordable homes built under a year-long partnership between MEGT, a not-for-profit organisation and one of Australia’s largest employers of apprentices, Stockland and Porter Davis Homes.

“What could be more fitting to mark the completion of this fantastic affordable housing project
than to be handing the keys to one of the people involved in its construction,” Mr Hall said.

Mr Hall praised the involvement of MEGT, Stockland and Porter Davis Homes, saying the project had resulted in employment for 15 trainees and apprentices in roles as varied as finance, real estate, building and construction.

The project also sets a benchmark for affordable environmental advances in housing construction for the future.

“The Victorian Coalition Government through Skills Victoria provided $100,000 in innovation funding to MEGT to build sustainable and affordable housing and to stimulate ongoing employment within the building and construction industry,” Mr Hall said.

“Each of the houses has been built according to environmental best practice through the use of solar hot water, recycled water for gardens, and the fit-out of smart wiring.

In 2010, MEGT partnered with Stocklands and Porter Davis Homes to pilot a model that would generate employment opportunities for apprentices and trainees. This model needed to be able to be scaled up or down to suit different geographic regions.

Six houses were purchased in Clyde North, Victoria on the Selandra Rise Estate. Learning from the problems of infrastructure and services disconnection faced by some other satellite estates, Stocklands planned the Selandra Rise project with community needs in mind. This was exactly the mindset that was synergistic with MEGT’s plans to create sustainable job opportunities for young people in regions right around Australia.

Fifteen apprentices and trainees have been employed by MEGT and placed with KPMG, Middendorp Electrics, Stocklands and Porter Davis Homes; with more trainees still to be employed for the real estate and financial services businesses connected to the Estate. It is the wide range of skills that makes this project scalable.

Estate building projects cycle tradespeople from house to house. That means only a handful of tradespeople are needed in building a large number of houses. It is when you combine all the industries involved in an estate, that employment for locals becomes sustainable after the houses have been built. While initial apprenticeships and traineeships come from the architects through to analysts, finance organisations and real estate agents, landscapers and the traditional building and construction companies; there are even more opportunities when the Estate is populated by retailers, libraries, sports facilities and schools. The sale of the houses in December 2011 will not therefore be the end of the employment opportunities for the community.

MEGT also assisted one of its apprentices, Michael Belli, in purchasing his first home from the estate.

In December, the project partners will sit down together and talk about the way forward. What were the learnings? What could we do better? Where should we take the model next? It’s important to Australian communities and to the Building and Construction industry that these types of schemes don’t stop with one estate and one region. It’s partnerships that will make them happen.

MEGT would like to acknowledge funding assistance from SkillsVic towards the success of this project.

Innovative building project lands apprentice a house

Minister for Higher Education and Skills Peter Hall will this morning hand the keys to a new sustainable house at Selandra Rise in Clyde North to a third year apprentice who helped build it.

The house is one of six affordable homes built under a year-long partnership between MEGT, a not-for-profit organisation and one of Australia’s largest employers of apprentices, Stockland and Porter Davis Homes.

“What could be more fitting to mark the completion of this fantastic affordable housing project than to be handing the keys to one of the people involved in its construction,” Mr Hall said.

“I congratulate Michael Belli on the purchase of his new home. Michael should feel especially proud to have had a hand in this project and the opportunity to demonstrate the future in affordable sustainable home construction.”

Mr Hall praised the involvement of MEGT, Stockland and Porter Davis Homes, saying the project had resulted in employment for 15 trainees and apprentices in roles as varied as finance, real estate, building and construction.

The project also sets a benchmark for affordable environmental advances in housing construction for the future.

“The Victorian Coalition Government through Skills Victoria provided $100,000 in innovation funding to MEGT to build sustainable and affordable housing and to stimulate ongoing employment within the building and construction industry,” Mr Hall said.

“Each of the houses has been built according to environmental best practice through the use of solar hot water, recycled water for gardens, and the fit-out of smart wiring.

“The Victorian Government continues to support the development of new skills through the Victorian Training Guarantee and it has been a phenomenally successful driver for promoting skills development in Victoria.

“Under the guarantee the Victorian Government has provided subsidised training to record numbers of Victorians to help them acquire the skills they need to secure employment or to improve their current skills base,” Mr Hall said.

Winner – 2011 MEGT Group Training Employer of the Year

Prue Leighton, Field Officer MEGT Group Training and Kym Hall, Melbourne Zoo

Recognised as a high quality learning environment, Melbourne Zoo, part of Zoos Victoria, tries to provide as many opportunities it can for entry level horticulture apprentices to learn about the wide variety of plants and plantings that only they can provide.

This would not be possible without the assistance of MEGT Group Training, who rotates the lucky apprentices to other host employers after their year with Melbourne Zoo. It means they receive continuity of employment so they can complete their apprenticeship.

Kym Hall, Melbourne Zoo’s Nursery Manager, accepted the Award at the MEGT Graduation on Tuesday 15th November. “Zoos Victoria has a long relationship with MEGT and is pleased with the service it receives from Prue Leighton and the high standard of their apprentices,” said Mr Hall.

The experience with Melbourne Zoo presents some unique challenges. Plants can be trampled by the enthusiastic public; or annihilated by hungry possums. When you work in an animal enclosure, most of the animals need to be segregated – even a tortoise can give a nip. Irrigations systems have to be set up on the outside of an enclosure because primates are pretty good at disassembling it – hey just like Leggo! And there are the challenges of trying to replicate the environments of other countries and regions, but with plants that will tolerate a Melbourne climate.

This is an experience of a lifetime. The apprentices are trained by professionals with world class knowledge and ideas for gardens and habitats. The apprentices get to work on exciting projects, for example, Mark Dobbie, their most recent apprentice and one who has been kept on for an additional year, was involved from start to finish in the new habitat for the new baboon display.

“I was involved in the earthworks, landscaping, irrigation systems and plantings,’ explains Mark. ‘It’s really great to overhear the public compliment it. And it’s wonderful to see how primates that had been on concrete, now have soil underfoot and plants around them.’ Although the baboons’ enthusiasm for some of the trees has been excessive – to the extent they have ring-barked them, it is a life lesson in problem solving Mark will take with him in the future.

Winner – Apprentice of the Year – Tasmania

Benjamin Standen a 22 year old apprentice at Lebrina Restaurant New Town, Tasmania, is studying his Certificate III Hospitality (Commercial cookery) through the MEGT Institute.

Ben has won the 2011 Tasmanian Training Awards as Apprentice of the Year.

‘When I was 16 years old I became a father, and studying full-time without a reliable income was not an option. This is why I chose to start an apprenticeship in commercial cookery and embraced my passion for food. The fact that I could undertake study through on the job training and assessment with MEGT Institute and work fulltime enabled me to support and fulfill my obligations to my family whilst gaining a qualification. I have not looked back since.’

During his apprenticeship, Ben attended the ‘Chef’s In the City’ program in Melbourne where he realised just how far his apprenticeship could take him. He also attended Symposia of Australian Gastronomy where he learned about the needs and views of others in the workplace and to understand the cultural and religious needs of customers.

In March 2010 Ben was invited to represent MEGT Institute in the Young Chef’s Cookery Competition held at the Taste of the Huon. The competition involved cooking four main course plates for four judges within an hour, using a mystery box of ingredients revealed ten minutes prior to the start of the competition. The tent was hot, the facilities inadequate and the 200 strong crowd daunting. ‘I won 1st place in my division (2nd year apprentice),’ explains Ben,’ impressing the judges and receiving a generous prize from the Huon Agricultural Group. However the knowledge and confidence I gained from the experience far outshone the money I received. Coming back to the Huon Valley where I grew up, seeing family and friends, and showing them what I had achieved and can achieve in my apprenticeship was remarkable.’

Vocational education delivered by MEGT Institute is entirely work-related, so the combination of Ben’s course and his work experience at Lebrina Restaurant has taught him the importance of effective communication as well as food skills.

‘Communication in the workplace is imperative not only to maintain our high standards of quality, consistency and customer service,’ explains Ben, ‘but also to deal with dietary requirements, allergies and intolerances. For example we have had customers enter the restaurant with dangerous allergies to fermented products (vinegar, wine, etc) or intolerance to sodium (highly present in salt) and if all staff are not aware of the conditions, the consequences can be deadly.

‘Two events which have tested my level of self-reliance, resilience, teamwork and communication skills were a Cooking Class and Lunch for Ports Australia and a Degustation Dinner held off site in a customer’s private residence.

‘On the 28th October 2010 Ports Australia commissioned Lebrina Restaurant to conduct a cookery class and serve lunch to 18 of its staff from all over Australia. I was heavily involved in the class, and was required to not only demonstrate my cookery skills in front of the customers but also to discuss the techniques being used. Even though I was nervous, the class was a great success, and some of the Ports Australia group came back to the restaurant the following evening for dinner.

On the 16th April 2011 Lebrina Restaurant held a degustation dinner involving seven courses at a private residence for a client and 15 of their guests. Going into an unknown kitchen at 5pm to serve dinner at 7pm was challenging and stressful. To move seven courses of prepared ingredients, as well as crockery, cutlery, cooking utensils and a myriad of other items to the venue took perfect communication and organisation, and were key to the dinner’s success.

‘Through both the Cookery class and the offsite Degustation dinner I found in myself a level of leadership I did not realise I possessed. The leadership gained through the daily work in my apprenticeship, I will take with me through my entire career, whether it be in Hospitality or otherwise.’

Ben fits in his passion for food with the joy and responsibility of raising his daughter, Kate. ‘Working in an Apprenticeship with on the job training has given me the flexibility to do that,’ he says.

My message to other apprentices, and those interested in an apprenticeship is clear; don’t hold back, work hard everyday both at work and outside of it. If you are passionate about what you want, and work hard everyday to get it, you will. Your apprenticeship can take you there.

MEGT Institute showcasing practical skills

National Skills Week is a new initiative; a collaborative approach dedicated to raising the status of practical and vocational learning. It focuses on enabling all Australians to gain a greater understanding of their opportunities, their potential and how they can contribute to a successful, modern economy.
Learning by doing is as important as academic learning and provides many paths to success.

MEGT Institute will be showcasing practical, employable skills through Hospitality activities.

When:
Wednesday October 5th, 2011

Where:
MEGT Institute, Sydney City Campus: Room 1 and 2 Level 4, 70 Riley Street, Sydney 2010

Time:
10am – 2pm

Activities on the day:

• network coffee
• serving food and drink
• flaring bar and wait demonstrations
• learn how to make coffee
• coffee art demonstrations
• fun time with children’s services
• Social Inclusion Policy launch by ACPET.

Everyone welcome!

Young indigenous mentors connect

Aboriginal trainees are advancing cultural exchange in schools, writes Keeli Cambourne.

Simon Price, a school principal for many years, says one of the most endearing things he has seen was when he walked into a classroom recently and saw two of his students hunkered over an assignment with a teachers’ aide.

What made it special was the mix of those involved.

“There was one of our Aboriginal students, with one of our non-Aboriginal students, working quietly with our Aboriginal teachers’ aide, Mafi Kailahi, on a project together,” he says.

“It was wonderful to see. In many small regional towns like ours, seeing that can be quite unusual but that is beginning to be a more normal occurrence now.”

Price is the principal at St Mary’s Catholic School in Wellington, in the central west of NSW. Two young Aboriginal women have been working in the school as teachers’ aides for the past year as part of a federal government program that places Aboriginal youth as trainees in education support.

Price says the cultural exchange between the trainees and his students has made a world of difference to his school and the community.

“We have had older Aboriginal educational workers on staff, but having people the age of the trainees helps Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal kids across the school,” he says.

”The students look to them as mentors and although they work in classes which have predominantly Aboriginal students, their presence has helped with the whole culture of the school.”

The federal government has invested about $23 million in the Indigenous Remote Service Delivery Traineeships, which, from 2010 to 2013, will place trainees aged 15 to 24 in schools and indigenous childcare services in remote areas.

In NSW, 24 young Aboriginal people are undertaking traineeships in teaching-support roles, mostly in independent schools. Their influence has been far reaching, helping Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students make a cultural connection, says the national manager of indigenous programs at MEGT Group Training, Debra Nooyen, who places the trainees.

“Mafi Kailahi is focusing on her Aboriginal language and helping the Aboriginal students identify with their language, which in turn helps them with their literacy,” Nooyen says.

Another trainee, Casey Jones Fisher, is working at St Joseph’s Primary School in Eugowra and organised the school’s first NAIDOC Week celebrations this year, with people from her community in Forbes teaching the students dance, language and music.

Nooyen says the presence of trainee Paul Simpson, working at St Patrick’s Primary School in Griffith, ”is a positive representation of Aboriginal males” at the school.

For Kailahi, the traineeship means that she is not only enhancing her own educational skills, but can pass on some of her heritage and knowledge to the younger generation.

“I went to Wellington High School and left in about year 11,” Kailahi says. ”Back then there was not really a lot of support for Aboriginal people in school.

”Working in the school now is a great opportunity for me to help the Aboriginal students get the knowledge about their culture and heritage that I didn’t have and make it easier to combine that with the culture we live in.”

Kailahi says that knowing more about their background helps the students feel proud of their heritage.

“I was raised on a mission and that gave me a lot of cultural background,” she says. ”Teaching the [Wiradjuri] language is also helping me as well.”

She says her presence in the school ”is helping all students see that Aboriginal people can work in the community and, more importantly, in education.”

”I hope I am breaking down the barriers between the students, too, so they learn they should get to a know person rather than just think about their heritage.”

Article courtesy The Sydney Morning Herald
Monday September 12, 2011
Keeli Cambourne
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/young-indigenous-mentors-connect-20110911-1k409.html#ixzz1Xis2hsP8

Terry Saxby Wins NSW GTA Award

Winner – Group Training Awards 2011 – Trainee of the Year – Disability
Terry is a deaf Aboriginal man who is currently undertaking a traineeship through MEGT Australia’s Indigenous Apprenticeship and Traineeship Network and the Office of Environment and Heritage’s Land Alive Project.

And he has just won the 2011 Group Training Awards  – Trainee of the Year – Disability.

Terry was working at the Batabah Aboriginal Land Council under the CDEP program prior to undertaking his Certificate III in Conservation and Land Management and was very keen to gain skills enabling him fulltime employment.

His traineeship involved him working on Aboriginal land in the Blacksmith and Swansea area while he studied for his qualification.

MEGT’s IATN Department supported him throughout the year to make sure he was able to turn the training into real workplace skills.

Terry believes the example he has set through his traineeship will help to close the gap in education and employment outcomes and create better opportunities for Indigenous people and their communities. His hearing impairment, for an Indigenous man in his 50’s has not stood in the way of pursuing his goals of being an active member of the local community.

Terry LOVES his work and is extremely reliable. He is early every day in order to be ready to get the team started. He is second in charge of the crew and enjoys this responsibilty. He is well liked and respected by the other team members. He is someone who just gets on with the job at hand.

Melbourne Graduation 2011

Celebrate your achievements at the Graduation night

Celebrate this momentous achievement with your family,
employer and/or host employer on

Date: Tuesday, 15 November 2011
Time: 7pm – 9:30pm
Venue: Malvern Town Hall
Address: Cnr Glenferrie Road & High Street
Malvern
(Keep this date free. Please note the change of venue)

Note: Your formal invitation will be sent out in September 2011
Bring: Family, friends and work colleagues

Jobs created by MEGT

The MEGT Group Training Greenhouse project was started over a year ago as an initiative to create employment for apprentices and trainees.

MEGT Group Training has purchased 6 blocks of land at the Selandra Rise Estate in City of Casey, Victoria, through Stockland and has partnered with Stocklands and Porter Davis homes to create those employment opportunities.

The houses are being built in line with best practice environmentally appropriate initiatives.

The houses are already under construction and 15 apprentices and trainees have been placed with a wide variety of organisations involved in building a new community.

Focus Group Report

Representing the MEGT Institute and the Student Council, Stephanie Jahns and Patricia Nathan attended to the Focus Group Forum organised by the Australian Education International (AEI) and the New South Wales branch of ISANA at Sydney University on Wednesday 10th August 2011.

Aiming to identify current problems and to discuss ways to improve the study experience for international students in Australia, the Focus Group was held in English and made of 7 international students from countries like Italy, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Germany and Colombia, studying higher education, TAFE and VET.

Three interviewers who were part of the Education Industry conducted the brain storming session.
Questions were related to social life, current studies, jobs and future plans, such as:

1. What are you studying in Australia?
2. Why did you choose Sydney? Considering that it is one of the most expensive cities in the world.
3. How do you socialise?
4. What did you hear about Australians before arriving in Australia?
5. How easy / difficult was it for you to adapt?
6. Are you happy with your studies?
7. What would you like to change regarding your current studies?
8. Did everything meet your expectations?
9. Do you find it easy / difficult to find a job related to your studies?
10. What are your plans regarding further studies / jobs?

The session lasted for approx 2 hours and all participants were given the opportunity to express their opinion. It was a relaxed atmosphere and we all hope that our input as international students will contribute to positive changes in the industry.