TAFE VC - the next system, VISTA

Spent last week navigating the next iteration of WEB CT (the LMS behind TAFE VC) that is to be rolled out across the Victorian VET sector by 2007. Mark Hallam, from WEB CT, facilitated the five day workshop of the pilot Institutes (Gippsland, Swinburne and Kangan).

Lots to do t oget the new system up and going, certainly not "just the click of a button", as one participant first thought of the task.

The great benefits of VISTA is that RTOs can brand their own learning resources and have greater control over the administration of the LMS.

Visit to Aboriginal Programs Unit - TAFE NSW

TAFE NSW always appears as an amporphous heap of bureaucracy to me when I am trying to make contacts. But when it comes to Aboriginal education, the bureaucracy is working towards some amazing goals that have the potential to fundamentally alter society.

As part of any national project on Indigenous education it is essential to engage with TAFE NSW, it is in this state that the bulk of Indigenous VET students interact with TAFE and private RTOs.

On Friday I met Danny Lester who let me know of an exciting initiative his unit is working on: they want to make compulsory the study of aboriginal Culture across all streams of learning and to develop a unit of competency that would be core across all Training Package quals.

Email down - no pants on

For the second day in a row Kangan Batman's server is down - no email. My fear is that when it comes back on I will have more than 100 emails to wade through. A few of my colleagues are finding it all rather difficult especially the TAFE VC Administrator whose entire work is centred around email. What today and yesterday has revealed is the dependency on electronic communication and how naked I feel when the technology fails.

NCVER Forum

Had two days in Adelaide attending NCVER Forum on research into Indigenous VET.

Good

• being in the same space as fellow professionals involved in Indigenous VET
• a great presentation from Metta Young and Emily from CAT about remote desert communities with a dose of reality
• meeting Anne Patel Gray, Director of Taoundi Colege

Bad

• many presentations stating the bleeding obvious - its the structures in which we operate that precludes equity of outcomes across VET in OZ
• the Indigneous client voice - AITAC - is no more and DEST is yet to work out how to accomodate that voice

Realisation

The Western paradigm in which we work is hung up big time on time, budgets and processes often at the expense of people.

PacBrands Kicks off

It's started. Our first real life consultants where we are advising and supporting a significant manufacturing organisation in establishing elearning as a core training tool.

we met today with Zari and Chris of the OHS area of PacBrands to kick off the development of learning content for delivery through the TAFE VC.

We will develop three training packages in the first stage of our relationship with the company:

• manual handling
• due diligence
• workplace inspections.