MP Hayes Praises ‘Innovative and Exciting’ IMPACT Apprenticeships

Minister of State for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning John Hayes dubbed IMPACT Apprenticeships ‘innovative and exciting’ at their Loughborough College launch last week.

The Apprenticeship Employment and Training Agency is a joint venture supported by the College and Australia’s leading apprenticeships provider MEGT.

Mr Hayes was one of a number of special guests in attendance at the launch including MEGT CEO David Windridge, Martin Traynor from the Leicester Chamber of Commerce and IMPACT Apprenticeships chairman John Smith OBE.

Speaking at the event, he said: “The combination of the experience of MEGT Australia and the established work of this more than 100 year old college is very exciting.

“In Australia, MEGT are by far the biggest apprenticeship provider. The numbers are quite staggering.

“What this speaks of in terms of that blend of experience is of course impressive, but what it also speaks of is the importance of the concept of an Apprenticeship Training Agency.

“I came to the conclusion very early that the way we would seed apprenticeships across the whole country and every community was through GTAs (Group Training Associations) and ATAs.

“This allows the reach of apprenticeships to go beyond where they have been historically.

“The focus on apprenticeships which MEGT will provide is incredibly important. It is the marriage, the collaboration, the fusion of this college and MEGT that I believe that we can allow the effectiveness of apprenticeships in delivering job-related skills to take us even further than we have travelled already.

“The message I have delivered here is one of absolute confidence in the work of our FE sector, one of real admiration the collaboration you have formed.

“I think it is innovative and exciting and I think it is going to be immensely invaluable to learners, to employers, to our country, to our economy, and to our culture.”

The Minister also talked about the government’s focus on apprenticeships and their value to businesses and learners.

“People say to me, why apprenticeships?” he said, “And I say to them because they are valued by learners, they’re understood by employers, they are a brand which has resonance with the wider community.

“They confirm competencies which are measurable, which add to employability, which feed economic purpose, which allow people to be the best they can be, which deliver a sense of worth and prowess through their acquisition.

“We have as a government made an unabridged, unremitting, unparalleled commitment to apprenticeships.

“Our commitment approach in terms of scale and scope and pace is absolutely unparalleled and unprecedented.

“We have delivered the greatest growth of apprenticeship numbers in the last year ever seen in modern history, we will build more apprenticeships in Britain than we have ever had in the whole of our history.

“The growth is across all ages, it’s across all sectors and it’s all levels. Every part of the country has seen more apprenticeships.”

“We are using apprenticeships both as a route to higher learning with the Level 4 apprenticeships – there are now 2000 plus Level 4 apprenticeships, bearing in mind there were only 200 in 2008-09.

“We will develop Level 5 and Level 6 and I intend to develop a new category called ‘Master Apprenticeships’ at that level.

“We will use apprenticeships as a means of upskilling and reskilling the existing workforce and of course what they have always been, which is a route into employment for those with technical tastes and talents as well as a route for those moving from disengagement to engagement through our access to apprenticeship work.

“We have apprenticeships filling a much bigger space than they ever have before, we’ve made them the pivot of the skills system and that’s why I’m so pleased to be here to support this important initiative.”

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.

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

Mission Australia Trainee Awards

Inaugural Mission Australia Trainee Awards night at Melbourne Aquarium on Monday 3rd of October.
The awards to to acknowledge the efforts over more than 100 trainees that Mission has over the last couple of years across 3 different projects.

MEGT GT provided 22 trainees to Build the Vic Urban “POP UP PARK” at Dandenong.  These trainees all have a level of disadvantage in the labour market and were unable to gain work, 2 of our trainees were lucky enough to receive awards.
10 of our original 22 were taken by bus  to the event by Mission Australia and had a fantastic time.

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.

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.

Winner – Tasmanian Training Equity Awards

‘I thought special things happen only to special people,’ says Martin Leeson –  Marty to his friends. But this is Marty’s time to shine and to be recognised for his achievements as winner of the 2011 Tasmanian Training Equity Awards – Vocational Student of the Year on the 19th August.

To achieve what he set out to do – to improve his employment opportunities, Marty has worked hard with Coles, Cosmos Inc, Optia and MEGT Institute. Everyone pulled together to support and encourage Marty, and the five other trainees studying for their Certificate II in Retail,  while he gained on-the-job experience with Coles.

‘During my childhood and teens,’ explains Marty, ‘I have faced many challenges. I have a learning disability and [have found it]  extremely difficult to understand some instruction and communication … as quickly as most people can.’

The frustrations of his challenges affected Marty’s personal relationships and taking his place in the workforce. But he didn’t face his challenges alone and he had the strength of character and determination to grasp the opportunities provided by MEGT Institute, that provided the vocational training, Cosmos Inc, who provided the disability support services and the local Coles store and staff that provided the workplace experience. The whole community has walked alongside Marty on his journey.

When Marty first started at Coles, he worked a couple of days a week in what he explains is called grocery face-up. ’You bring the stock from the back to the front,’ explains Marty. This is so produce is always the freshest on the shelves. As a trainee studying his Certificate II in Retail Marty gained work experience in a new area: in fresh produce. ‘Coles was very impressed that I was working very well,’ according to Marty, and he was offered a full time job in fresh produce.

‘The training helped me get full time work and I got offered jobs that I did not get the opportunity to do before. It has given me more self confidence and belief in myself.

‘My advice to others is, do not be afraid. Give it a go. Just do your best. That is all I have to suggest. You never know what you can achieve if you put your mind to it.’

Once the course was over, and he had qualified, Marty did not expect to hear anything further. He was already pleased with the employment outcomes offered to him at Coles. But since then, he has received accolades as Runner Up in the National MEGT Student of the Year Awards and is now the winner of the Tasmanian Training Equity Awards.

So special things can happen for anyone. Just take Marty’s advice.