GRVEC encourages local businesses to “Adopt a School(s)" so they can give young people hands-on learning experiences in a specific industry sector where there is a skills need.
Our programs focus on Geelong’s current or predicted skills shortages. We also look at meeting future skills needs by encouraging learning in new and emerging industry sectors.
Through these program, students gain real experience, learn about career opportunities and find out about the kinds of skills employers are looking for. The projects help participants to develop positive attitudes about local businesses and aims to dispel negative and outdated perceptions of industries, such as manufacturing.
Local businesses gain experience in working with today’s young people and have a hand in shaping their future workforce.
Our projects can be based in business or industry, in the community or in schools.
|
|
2010 Programs |
|
Alcoa Future Leaders of Industry (AFLOI)
The 2010 Alcoa Future Leaders of Industry scholarship recipients have had a big start to their activities this year with two days of their program completed. A Leadership training day and a Communications and Work Readiness Skills day have already taken place.
Facilitated by Ruth Rees the leadership day helped students to develop an awareness of what leadership skills are and how as individuals they can start to become not only an ambassador for the program but a leader within their own life. With lots of hands on activities and team work the group got to explore the types of leadership behaviours that were needed to be successful in life and along the way got to know one another better and make a few new friends.
Next on the AFLOI agenda was a Communications & Work Readiness Skills Training day led by Tina Nikolovski from Radiance. The objective of this session was to learn about and practice communication skills for the workplace, build an awareness of employability skills and explore how personal appearance can have an impact on success. Tina used a variety of tools and techniques to draw out the students and we were pleased to see so many stepping forward and practicing some of the tools and techniques being taught.
GRVEC would like to thank the following 2010 supporting companies (we'll be showcasing each company throughout the year):
| AGB Group |
Jeff Sykes & Associates |
Boundary Bend Limited |
| Air Radiators |
Kempe International |
Reid Engineering Pty Ltd |
| ICD Asia Pacific Pty Ltd |
Kinetic Engineering Services |
Uptime Services Management P/L |
| GD Manufacturing Engineers P/L |
Lakis Engineering |
Wathaurong Glass & Arts |
| Industrial Control Technology (ICT) |
Lyondellbasell Australia P/L |
|
In the first of our supporting companies profile, GRVEC would like to thank Boundary Bend Limited for their support of the AFLOI program over the past three years. We would like to share some highlights with you about this thriving local company.
Boundary Bend Limited was established by visionary horticulturalists Rob McGavin and Paul Riordan in 1998. What began as an initial planting of 200ha of olives at Boundary Bend Estate in Northern Victoria has grown to become Australia’s largest fully integrated modern olive business, located on 7 sites across Victoria and employing over 100 staff.
Their current industry position can be summarised as follows:
- Australia’s largest owner of olive groves with 2.5 million trees (6,636 hectares) across three sites.
- Australia’s largest supplier of olive trees from our nursery operations in Lara and Corio.
- Australia’s largest manager of olive processing plants with processing capacity of 40 tonnes of fruit per hour.
- Australia’s leading provider of olive consultancy services, consulting to approximately 80% of Australia’s olive oil production.
- Australia’s largest supplier of olive oil to the Australian domestic market.
- Australia’s largest exporter of olive oil, with customers in 15 countries.
- Owner of a show-piece grove and processing plant at Boundary Bend, Victoria.
- Owner of one of Australia’s leading olive oil retail brands – Cobram Estate.
- Owners of Australia’s only specialist olive oil Laboratory (NATA accredited) at Lara
- Manufacturer of Australia’s leading olive harvesters – “The Colossus XL”
- Owner of a state of the art fully automated high speed olive oil bottling and packaging plant at Lara.
|
|
Girls Big Day Out
On 20th April, 103 Year 9 girls from 13 local secondary colleges were introduced to a number of non-traditional career options at Gordon TAFE. Known as the Girls’ Big Day Out, this event is part of an effort to address skill shortages in the Geelong area and let girls have a look at what is traditional seen as ‘boys’ jobs. By the smiles and chatter at the end of the day (from the girls and the teachers!) it may have just achieved that.
During the day the girls got a chance to try their hand at building & construction, automotive, engineering, painting, cooking, electrical and horticulture along with learning what is sustainability. Each activity is aimed to give the girls a hands-on experience of the trade in a fun and non-threatening environment.
Along with the activities the girls gained valuable information from industry representatives and tradeswomen who helped out on the day. Each year we invite the parents of the girls for a morning tea where they met with the sponsors and tour the activities.
This event was coordinated by a joint partnership between GRVEC, BacLinks, Gordon Institute of TAFE & SGRLLEN.
GRVEC would like to thank all the sponsors involved on the day. Please click here for a list of them.
You can now follow the GBDO on Facebook. See the Facebook page for photos and other relevant information. |
|
|
|
  
Civil Construction is anything to do with the earth, water or transport infrastructure. In civil construction you can create just about anything from a major freeway, railway, water storage reservoir or new housing subdivision.
They are responsible for the design & construction of buildings along with many other structures and major infrastructure such as; aerodromes, power plants, irrigation systems, golf courses & dredging of harbours. Roads and bridges are designed and elevated highways and overpasses are planned.
Civil Construction is a constantly developing industry, with the latest technology being implemented in order to maximize the efficiency, durability and integrity of the structures being fabricated.
Career opportunities in the Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction industry are many and varied. The potential exists to work in any number of specialised construction roles. Interested in finding out more? Go to www.civilcontractors.com/national/careers and click on 'occupations' in the menu on the right to explore careers in civil construction.
GRVEC along with the Civil Contractors Federation and The Gordon are offering a 4 day taster program and one week of work experience during term 3. If you are keen to participate see your careers teacher at school or download the flyer and expression of interest form from our forms tab. Applications close Wednesday 16th June.
|
|
2009 Programs |
|
'Y' Chef Cooking Challenge
GRVEC and the local hospitality industry want to promote and make an exciting cooking
challenge to lift the profile of this skill shortage area and create a fun and vibrant competition. The 'Y' Chef Cooking Challenge, will again take place this year, with four VET Hospitality providers and aims to increase young people’s interest in careers as chefs as well as enhancing the links between schools, students and the hospitality and tourism industry.
The chefs involved mentor the students and are all from local award winning restaurants within the Geelong region. In 2009 the Chefs are: Simon Parrott – Fishermens Pier, Leonie Eddie – Fyansford Hotel/Jack & Jill Restaurant, Matt Dempsey – Pettavel, Marty Chichester – Oakdene Restaurant and Daniel Brehaut – Black Bull Tapas & Bar
As well as the local chefs, GRVEC’s partner in this project are Business and Community Links (Baclinks). GRVEC are proud to announce that MEGT are our major sponsor and Breville sponsored the prizes for the winning teams. We thank both businesses for their generous support.
'Y' Chef Foodies Tour
As part of the prize package in 2009, Matt Dempsey then the Executive Chef of Pettavel Winery & Restaurant, organised to take the winning and runner-up teams on a ‘Foodies Tour of Melbourne’.
Matt organised for us a tour and tasting session at Calendar Cheese Company, a tour of Queen Vic Market, the Essential Ingredient & Prahran Market where the students learnt about the wonderful fresh produce available & to top it all off we had lunch at MoVida where we meet celebrity chef Frank Camorra.
A big thank you to Matt for being so generous with his time and allowing us to explore the best 'foodie' places in Melbourne.
|
2009 Winners - Sean Harper & Nicholas Grabowski (RTO: Gordon TAFE, Chef: Matt Dempsey from Pettavel Winery)
Matt Dempsey & 'Y' Chef students at the markets |
Mentors for our Students
The 2009 'Mentors for our Students’ school based mentoring program involved young people from Years 9-12 in 10 of Geelong’s Secondary Schools. They were matched with recently retired people from careers associated with maths, science and engineering. This program was established to encourage the students to understand the benefits of keeping up with their maths and science subjects and to consider a career in these areas.
The young people and their mentors met on average for 1 hour a week. The meetings involved a focus on careers and activities based around either science, maths or engineering. Here are a few examples of the mentor/mentee partnerships and the activities they worked on whilst developing a friendship and establishing a foundation upon which to discuss career options and the world of work.
|
Geelong High School
Mentor: Roger Lamb
Mentees: Matthew Reynolds, Josh Melvin, Tyler Mits
The three students undertook a project involving
a Solar Panel. They investigated the application of
‘reflectors’ to augment the power output. This
involved constructing a suitable ‘set-up’ to enable
the choice of the best available material for the
adjustable reflectors, which were then used in
successive trials on sunny days to log the increase
in output obtained by varying the attitude of the
reflectors. |
 |
|
|
 |
North Geelong Secondary College
Mentors: Frank Thompson and Tony Gage
Mentees:
Team 1 - Jason Duong, Brandon Cray, Ronald Salazar
Team 2 - Sandra Gajic, Kaitlyn Richards
Two teams of students at North Geelong Secondary
College competed against each other in a ‘Bridge
Building’ competition. The guidelines were simply, to
construct a bridge from twenty-five 250mm long
bamboo skewers to span 300mm. On completion
the bridges were tested to destruction by placing
a hanger at the centre of the bridge and gradually
increasing the weight. The students are now
planning to participate in the F1-in-schools
program and have begun the initial stages of
planning.
|
 |
|
|
Careers in Transport and Logistics
This program aimed to convey a strong message about the huge range of challenging career opportunities within the Transport and Logistics industry, a skill shortage area.
The ‘Careers in Transport and Logistics 2009’ program ran over a five week period and consisted of student participating in worksite visits, tours, information sessions, guest speakers and skills/equipment demonstrations. Whilst participating in the program, students were given the opportunity to gain a Certificate I in Transport and Logistics.
The project is organised by the Geelong Regional Vocational and Education Council; the Regional Industry Career Adviser for Geelong, G-Force and Journey Management Group. |
|
Civil Construction Taster
GRVEC, in partnership with the Civil Contractors Federation and Ballarat University offered 15 Geelong students the opportunity to gain an insight into the civil construction industry and explore related career opportunities.
The 2009 Taster program ran over 4 days at Newcomb SC and included a work experience week. The students learnt about; Occupational Health and Safety, traffic management, use of construction tools, plan reading, planning work and measurements and calculations for construction. |
 |
|
|
Parent Career Connections
GRVEC are facilitating parent information sessions for those parents who would like some advice on how to help their 13 to 19 year old choose their career and learn more about school options to make that career happen?
A GRVEC Project Officer can help parents with basic information to bridge the gap between what they did when they left school and what happens when you leave school now.
If you as a parent have questions on:
What career options are available?
Subject selection help for Year 9 and beyond?
What are VET, VCAL, VCE & School Based Apprenticeships/Traineeships?
How to use some simple careers assessment tools?
How to use the Job Guide?
Needing to understanding TAFE, Apprenticeships, Group Training, University?
Preparing for employment?
GRVEC have held sessions in local community centres, workplaces, schools, neighbourhood houses and local shopping centres.
|
|
| |
|
Face 2 Face
To help young people make informed career choices, GRVEC and the RICA, have collated a database of local business people, industry representatives, professionals, tradespeople and others from a diverse range of occupations who are interested in speaking with small groups of secondary school students, imparting knowledge about the world of work. This may include:
- Overview of their industry
- Overview of their career pathway
- Types of jobs within the industry
- What they look for in an employee
- The things they like about working in their industry and how they ended up where they are today.
If you think this is a program that you could utilise within your school, or if you are an employee that would like to become involved in the program, please contact us. |
|
Koorie-Pacts
Kathy Travis and Lindi Dietzel have written the customised PACTS handbook based on the original PACTS handbook developed by the Brotherhood of St Lawrence. The K-PACTS handbook is in draft form and has been trialled at 2 pilot PACTS workshops for Koorie parents.
The 2 pilot workshops have been ran at Wathaurong Co-op & at Newcomb SC. The sessions ran over 2 hours and parents who attended have been actively encouraged to re-engage with their own schools and the Koorie Contact Officers.
The concept of a customised version of the PACTS material for Koorie parents has caught the interest of other PACTS facilitators in the State and we hope to be able to hand-over the final product, along with advice on its implementation, once the project has reached its conclusion. |
|
Do you need a Group Training specialist to come and talk to your students?
GRVEC have compiled a list of the Geelong Group Training companies who are willing to come out to schools to talk to your students. They are able to provide information about apprenticeship and traineeship opportunities, information on a range of industries and job hunting skills.
For more information please click here Group Training School Services
|
|
| |
|
Lets Talk About Tomorrow
Let’s Talk About Tomorrow allows for Indigenous young people in Years 7 to 12 and their families to have a get together and chat about what is going on in Geelong and the opportunities that are out there, right now.
A fun and relaxed environment was created over a pizza lunch and allowed for an informal chat to occur between parents and students, teachers and people whose job it is to help these young people make a successful journey through the senior school years and into further training or work.
Some of the people who facilitated discussion were:
Richard Fry, from the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, who talked about the Wannik strategy, scholarship opportunities and the tutoring program...
Lindi Dietzel, explained what Diversitat’s Young Indigenous Employment service was about…
Sarah Sinclair spoke about her journey into employment at Gordon Institute of TAFE through a traineeship…
Julie Jose spoke about the programs at Wathaurong for early school leavers…
John Grace from GRVEC chatted about work placements for students in year 10 to year 12, as well as information sessions for parents and family members to help them talk to their young people about choosing a career.
|
|
| |
|
ESL VCAL program at North Geelong Secondary College
North Geelong Secondary College and Peter Macer of GELC successfully sought funding to establish a Foundation level VCAL program for 15 students for whom English is a second language. The students have come to Australia as refugees and this program has been designed to address their literacy and numeracy needs with a focus on vocational outcomes. Lawrence Jordan has designed the curriculum and teaches the students.
The program contains regular vocationally oriented activities such as, industry tours where the students then bring back what they have learnt and apply it to the classroom. Students also undertake work placement which have been organised by Lawrence and GRVEC. |
|
|
