The National Focus categories recognise outstanding contributions towards the attainment of Australia’s national vocational education training system (VET) priorities. In particular, the National Focus categories acknowledge contributions of individuals, schools, businesses and organisations which have had a significant impact on the VET sector. In 2012, categories include: Community Pathways to VET Award This Award recognises community-based, not-for-profit organisations that demonstrate […]

The 52nd annual ALA conference will be held in NSW’s stunning Byron Bay on the 11th and 12th October 2012.

This year’s conference theme is Lifelong learning equals resilient communities.

Creating mouthwatering Greek delicacies or developing a passion for singing are just some of the exciting new skills Tasmanians can learn this Autumn through LINC Tasmania’s LearnXpress courses. The Autumn LearnXpress guide, published in newspapers tomorrow, details a range of courses in leisure and lifestyle activities, as well as work and life skills.   Tutors […]

A call for proposals for the NBN-Enabled Education and Skills Services (NBN-EESS) Program was announced on 1 December 2011. The call for proposals will close on Friday 3 February 2012 at 5:00 pm (AEST). The program will support the development and trialing of innovative online education and skills services that take advantage of the high […]

This session looked at a recent Ballarat University funded project using narrative analysis which involved interviewing 20 young students between the ages of 16 and 21 years enrolled in alternative out of school programs, namely the ‘young mums program’ located in the Wendouree Community Centre, ‘The Stepping Stones Program’ located in Daylesford, and ‘The Link-Up […]

Would you donate $1.00 per week to create a Community Contract Centre to teach traditional life skills to socially sensitive members of your local area? Lyn Bell (centre) with supporters of the People Power Pledge (l-r) Brad Ryan, Manfred Stephens and Thelma and Mick Roberts. Lyn Bell has a vision to create a community learning […]

A campaign against proposed government funding cuts to community centres in South Australia has been successful in reversing the decision. The South Australian Government will restore funding to $9 million to be shared among about 100 community centres across SA.

The ‘Don’t go breaking our heart’ campaign, led by Community Centres SA was the culmination of years of lobbying the Government for operational funding across the whole sector.

In this session Keith will explain some of the ‘tricks of the trade’ he has encountered in his journey as a tutor teaching seniors Information Technology. He will consider a range of topics within this heading for example: What is a ‘tutor’? Why become a tutor? What’s in it for me? Does a tutor have […]

In this session Keith will explain and show some websites and programs that he has found interest seniors enough to want to connect and use the Internet.  These are sites that offer real practical benefits to seniors such as: Easy communication with relatives and friends Easy and practical usage of Public Transport

In this session Keith will explain some of the benefits and features of a few of the plethora of FREE Google products. He will explain where they could be of use to both tutors and users. The main Google products being explained are Gmail, Google Calendar, Documents, Groups and Maps. Other Google products that will […]

The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) have announced the winners of their National Australian Training Awards for 2011.

This year, for the first time, the award categories included a national award for Community Pathways to VET, and ALA board member, Mark Brophy was one of the judges. Western College in Dubbo, NSW was the winner of the award.

For people interested in building up connections across the new LLN Community Educator Network (LLN-CEN). Come to a virtual wine & cheese event. Bring your networking skills and your thinking caps. We’ll continue the discussion from previous events such as the LLNP provider forum and the joint ACAL/ALA conference cafe session. We also welcome your […]

Melbourne turned on a beautiful spring day to welcome the participants of the 51st ALA Conference in September. The theme of this year’s conference was Celebrating Adult Learning Spaces and this inspired a wide range of national and international presentations from keynote speakers about how the physical and conceptual spaces of learning are created.

The papers from this year’s ALA conference—Celebrating Adult Learning Spaces—are now available online. Click here to view.

In this session Sandra will share her experiences and ideas about what is best practice in teaching older people how to use the Internet and to explore the current training gaps. She will also discuss what older people want to use Internet for and barriers preventing them from doing so. Sandra will be drawing from […]