MEGT Melbourne people raise funds to buy textbooks for Indonesian children

People from across MEGT came together at our Melbourne City Campus for a sausage sizzle fund raising on a Thursday in early February to buy English language text books for primary school children in Indonesia.

Nicola Gray, Director of Studies of ABILITY English, Melbourne Campus, organised the fund raising. Nicola spent her recent annual holidays as a volunteer English teacher on tropical Gili Trawangan Isle, off Lombok’s shore, where she was concerned to learn that there was only one English language text book per class.

On her return, she approached MEGT CEO David Windridge to enquire about possible fundraising opportunities. David generously offered to match $ for $ all money raised by our people for the English language text books.

Held on a sunny afternoon on the balcony of our Melbourne campus, people came from all across MEGT, including Ability English, MEGT Institute, Workforce Planning, the Australian Apprenticeship Centre, Finance, IT and Facilities. This fundraising was something of a first: a social occasion at which all MEGT people could meet one another and exchange views.

Says Nicola Gray, “It was great both to raise funds for a very necessary educational cause, but also to be able to meet our colleagues to understand better the different departments and what they do.”

With MEGT matching the money raised by the get-together, sufficient funds were raised to provide the much needed 120 books.

Because international tourism is vital to Gili Trawangan’s economy, it is important to its children’s future to speak international languages, especially English. The text books will help ensure the children will, in time, secure worthwhile jobs.

The students and  teachers of Gili Trawangan’s primary school have sent a message thanking Nicola and MEGT for their books.

A Café is born

Stage 1 students currently studying Certificate III Hospitality have taken  on the challenge of setting up, running and serving coffees to the Riley street Campus every Tuesday for the morning break.

During  team brain storming sessions and meetings they came up with the name Piccolo cafe (little cafe). With some prior marketing to classes and  MEGT staff with posters placed about the Institute, the result was a resounding  success with queues out the door and around the corner. The nervous students managed to rally together and survive their first day, serving a total of 68 cups of coffee to students and staff.

Wow what a great effort

The cafe will be an ongoing practical application throughout the semester whereby the students gain practical experience by actively being involved and responsible for the cafe operation.

Here are some of the pictures from the opening day.!!!!!

MEGT Institute visit Sydney Children’s Hospital

MEGT Institute Graduation 2011 (Adelaide)

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.

VET marketing goes national to suit industry

Ignoring blockages from state-focused regulators, MEGT’s television campaign signals an emerging national VET market.

Have you seen the television commercial which ends with the arrival on screen of a blue work van with the yellow letters MEGT blazoned across it? The modestly designed commercial commences with some worried looking characters fretting in the office. Each of the characters is dressed in a white top with one or two words written across it – payroll, paperwork, administration or workers compensation.

To add to the stress on the employer, seated forlornly outside on the footpath, another character enters the scene with the words trainee and apprentice on his shirt.  Phew, the MEGT blue work van arrives and the employer’s troubles evaporate.  Simple message: MEGT takes the worry out of training for employers.

MEGT’s bare-bones commercial is a world apart from the sassy ones shown repeatedly during the one-day cricket season last January by two distance education universities, UNE and USQ.

One commercial featured a trendy young professional in the city linking to her professor via Skype or similar, and the other commercial offered the frustrated young professional the option of distance education as a way to break out of the box he might have built around himself.

The contrast between the MEGT and the universities’ commercials suggests some differences between VET and higher education. For instance, recruitment campaigns for many VET programs such as traineeships and apprenticeships need to be pitched as much at employers as at potential apprentices, while the vast majority of university courses are pitched solely at the prospective individual student.

If the message of the university commercials is to be bold, enrol now and catapult forward your professional career, the message of the MEGT advertisement is far more practical, says CEO David Windridge. “We have one message: MEGT makes apprenticeships, traineeships and training happen.”

The simple metaphor of an MEGT blue van arriving in time to do all the training-related work underlines the point that MEGT makes things happen, no matter what services MEGT provides. Windridge says conveying this single message is vital to his business.

“Because MEGT delivers so many different services it’s hard to actually give a clear message that covers all of those in one hit. We’re a training organisation, a group training organisation and an Australian apprenticeship centre and we’ve got other ancillary services. It is difficult to get that across.”

MEGT is also deliberate in pitching to two different target markets. The television campaign is planned by a media buying organisation and the commercials scheduled and placed to ensure the MEGT message reaches two diverse target audiences at critical times of the day: employers on the one hand, and 17 to 25 year olds on the other.

However, Windridge is aware that 17-25 year olds consume media in totally different ways to employers. “That’s why TV is not the major platform we use for that market. For the younger group we also use social media such as Facebook. We have a very big online presence.”

“TV on its own is not a worthwhile strategy. So the campaign for young people was designed quite differently to the employer campaign. And local area marketing was incorporated into the mix for it to work.”

Another difference between sectors is timing. MEGT needs to get its message across to employers in October when employers are making decisions about apprentices and other staff for the following year; universities want to influence individual customers’ buying decisions in January.

Meanwhile the similarities between these sets of commercials are arguably more significant, including the common attempt to build market share through mass media marketing and the creation of a national brand not bound by the location of the provider’s headquarters, such in Armidale for UNE, Toowoomba for USQ or Ringwood in suburban Melbourne for MEGT.

Windridge says there are two reasons MEGT is running these television commercials, the second of which may surprise. “The first reason is to build our market share. The second is to build market size as we feel a responsibility to promote apprenticeships, traineeships and vocational education in general: the health of this sector affects our livelihoods.”

When Windridge refers to livelihoods, for this not-for-profit organisation this means the livelihoods of its staff located a long way from Ringwood. “We’ve got 67 offices, 900 staff and we deliver services in every state in Australia, and we certainly see ourselves as a national provider.”

Besides looking after the welfare of his staff, Windridge is passionate about the need for VET providers to think about the national market, because industry is national in its outlook.
“A VET provider can still legitimately choose to be purely local and that’s still a valid proposition, but if you want to grow the business then you also have to have a national viewpoint as well.

“We look at VET as a national product and sometimes in the world of state regulations, or state interpretations of federal regulation, it is hard to actually justify that as a national product. But I think VET has to be national in its approach because industry is national. If VET is going to meet the needs of industry, and that’s what VET’s fundamentally about, then VET also has to take a national approach.”

Windridge believes that if a training provider is interested in taking a long-term view of the world “then they have to look at some type of advertising strategy over a period of time”. He appreciates that “it’s an expensive process” to advertise on television, but says it also provides “opportunities and it’s an important part of having a long-term view as to where your business is going to go”.

Employers like the message that MEGT will “get things to work nationally”, says Windridge. “National employers use MEGT to make things easier when navigating what is ostensibly a state-based education system delivering nationally recognised qualifications.” This is MEGT’s sub-text: MEGT works nationally despite any hurdles put in its way or in the way of employers.

Windridge is not mesmerised by his high own profile commercials and is determined that MEGT have a national and local profile: “Our positioning line is: big enough to support you, small enough to know you.”

And the market will only get bigger, says Windridge. “In the not too distant future increasingly it will be a global approach [to the VET market].

National is almost a stepping stone to global. I don’t know how our regulators are going to cope with that.”

Dr John Mitchell is a Sydney-based researcher and consultant who specialises in VET workforce development and strategic leadership.

Article by:
John Mitchell ‘Inside VET’ column in Campus Review, Monday 31 October 2011

He’s an award winner and the zoo wants to keep him there

From left Kerri Mewett from Kangan Institute, Mark Dobbie - the apprentice and Prue Leighton from MEGT

Congratulations Maria on your paid internship in a child care centre

Maria Maryaretha from Indonesia,  successfully completed her Diploma of Children’s Services at MEGT Institute (Sydney Campus) in February 2010. Since then Maria has had her OTV (Occupational Training Visa) approved and accepted and is now currently employed full time at the Montessori Academy Childcare Centre as a childcare worker.

Why did you decide to study in Australia?
I love Australia being a cultural country with so many open minded people with a lot of freedom. I am very grateful to be living in such an accepting country with so many opportunities.

How did you hear about MEGT Institute?
I heard from friends that studied at MEGT Melbourne that had such great ideas and specifically I loved that it was a specialist Child care college. Not many places had such a great reputation and also offered children’s services.

What was the best part of your course?
The best part of the course was the interaction with other students. I had the best trainers that were so experienced and had so much knowledge about the industry.

What is the best part of your job?
Interacting with the children is the best part of my job. I love teaching the children things and seeing them start to learn on their own it makes you feel confident you are making a difference and being successful in your industry. I eventually want to open up my own child care centre in Indonesia and bring back all the skills I learnt from MEGT Institute.

What did you learn at MEGT Institute?
MEGT was the classroom environment, the work placement really helps you to understand the theory I learnt in class. The different nationalities in the course made it really fun and helped me improve my English. MEGT assisted me in achieving my goals as they were helpful throughout the process and structured everything. I have already recommended MEGT Institute after my great experience there. All the lessons and theories were so useful and helped me find a full time job, it got me exactly to where I want be. The teachers were fantastic and I was continually updated on regulations and I am extremely confident in knowing that I am a good teacher after all my studies at MEGT Institute.

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!

ABILITY wins an English Australia AWARD!

ABILITY English – Innovating solutions

On Friday night, ABILITY English won the English Australia ETS TOEFL Award for Innovation in ELICOS for our General English Plus course.

What is this award?
It is an award recognising innovative contributions of excellence to the ELICOS sector.

Why did we win?
General English Plus won this award because it

demonstrated strategic approach to addressing a specific, clearly defined issue meeting identified student need;
an institutional approach to and support of innovation; and demonstrated impact on students with clear evidence of use of a feedback loop.

What is the General English Plus innovation exactly?
We have designed two types of General English courses to ensure we meet the needs of ALL student learning styles. Our General English Plus courses have a more serious and academic teaching style. Students are pushed forward, preparing them for greater study and work goals. This means that every student can succeed with the right kind of learning they need.