NCVER Conference Adelaide

Last week the NCVER hosted an Indigenous Forum.
There were representatives from all over Australia culminating in two days of research reports and findings.

The presentations included:
Indigenous VET Student survey 2004: What do Indigenous people want and get from their training? Experiences and outcomes from the survey process.
What do we already know about what it takes for success in VET for Indigenous people?
A great presentation about Effective educational pathways for remote Indigenous peoples.
A presentation from far north Queensland that provided an overview of successful literacy and numeracy for Indigenous students. A greadt DVD was included.

A most interesting presentation about the experiences of Indigenous prisoners with VET training that was presented about the Queensland correctional System.
A reserach presentation about Indigenous youth in school-to-work tranisition.
Another presentation higlighted research completed about VET in Indigenous governance. Challenges and innovation.
A statistical overview was also presented about Where are Indigenous staff in VET, what do they do and what are their experiences?
One of the highlights focuesd on a presentation of students from Taondi College. This was interesting to hear the students perspectives on their training experiences.

The previous night we had been fortunate to meet these students at a function at the Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute.
A great presentation.

The forum provided an opportunity to discuss the issues that are current in the VET system for Indigenous VET. Lots of discussion centred on the where to from here? What are the priorities to forward VET policy, practices and research in relation to Indigenous Australians. Government represeantation included presentations from the newly formed DEST but consultation needs to be a major priority in planning for the future.