Education and training
Anti-Poverty Week 2009 Launch Event – Forum ‘Cost Barriers to educational opportunities: Collaborating to create change’
– October 12 2009
Please find below an invitation to the launch event for Anti-Poverty Week 2009, the ‘Cost barriers to educational opportunities: Collaborating to create change’ forum. The all-day forum will be held on Monday 12th of October at the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.
The goal of this forum, jointly hosted by the Equity in Education Alliance (VCOSS, Good Shepherd Youth & Family Services, Esther’s Voice, Melbourne City Mission, the Brotherhood of St Laurence and Berry Street Victoria) and the Australian Association for Research in Education, Special Interest Group Social Justice, Victoria, is to build knowledge collaborations between researchers, the community sector, education professionals and Government to develop a cross sector agenda to improve education equity.
Keynote speaker, Professor Jack Keating, will be presenting his proposal for equitable education reform and a range of speakers from the community sector, universities, schools, Government and trade unions will be participating in panels and concurrent workshops that focus on cost barriers to achieving education equity. More information can be found in the attached flier.
Should you wish to attend this exciting forum please complete and return the attached registration form by Friday 2 October. PLACES ARE LIMITED.
Download flyer and registration form
Education and training
Quality education and training plays a central role in ensuring that all children and young people have the skills they need to participate in community life.
It is also a crucial contributor to Victoria’s economic growth and can break the cycle of poverty. Young people who do not complete school or go onto further training, such as an apprenticeship, are at a greater risk of unemployment; earn less on average than those who have completed school or equivalent training; and experience a range of poorer social outcomes, such as poorer health.
Currently, not all children and young people receive the education and training they need. Children and young people who are vulnerable, who have complex and diverse needs, including students from low income families, who are Indigenous, from migrant or refugee families, who are in State care, and/or who have a disability have poorer education outcomes than those who do not experience disadvantage.
VCOSS advocates for the education and training system to better respond to the diverse needs of all Victorian children and young people. Specifically, we advocate for:
increased resources for schools in areas of disadvantage, and increased resources to support individual disadvantaged students within schools, in order to improve their educational outcomes;
- increased resources for programs for children with a disability or those with particular educational needs;
- the expansion of innovative programs that support school attendance by Indigenous students;
- full funding for school programs in order to remove the need for financial contributions from students’ families;
- better integration of school and work through the creation of additional TAFE places, an increase in the range of TAFE courses, and creating better pathways between school, TAFE, Vocational Education and Training (VET) and Adult Community Education (ACE).
We raise these issues in our annual State Budget Submission. Download the education chapter in the VCOSS 2008-09 State Budget Submission. Following each budget VCOSS writes an analysis of the Government’s spending commitments.
Education Costs Kit
The ‘Education Costs Kit: a resource for community agencies working with people on low incomes’, has been produced by the Emergency Relief Victoria Network with the support of Springvale Community Aid and Advice Bureau and the members of the Equity in Education Alliance, which include Good Shepherd Youth & Family Service, the Victorian Council of Social Service (VCOSS), Brotherhood of St Laurence, Melbourne City Mission and Berry Street Victoria. The kit was developed as a result of increasing demand on agencies to assist families seeking assistance with educational costs.
The kit includes four information sheets:
- Parent Payments in State Schools (this has been translated into Arabic, Cambodian, Dari, Mandarin, Sudanese Arabic and Vietnamese)
- Help with School Costs: Concessions and Programs
- Agency Process and Ideas for Helping with School Costs
- Reducing School Costs.
Please note for advocacy purposes that there are some new requirements of schools (outlined in Info Sheet No 1 Parent Payments).
Schools must:
- provide all parents with a copy of the school’s Payments Policy when they send out the payment requests
- ensure all payment requests for next year go out at least 6 weeks before the end of Term Four
- provide details of how the money collected will be spent, as well as making it clear whether they are ESSENTIAL, OPTIONAL or VOLUNTARY payments
- accurately cost payment items and ensure all payments requests are fair, reasonable, and kept to a minimum.
Please feel free to download the kit and distribute widely.
If you would like to discuss the impact of the cost of education on Victorian families please contact Rivkah Nissim (rivkah.nissim@vcoss.org.au) or Lauren Matthews (lauren.matthews@vcoss.org.au) on 03 9654 5050. For further information on the kit, contact Emergency Relief Victoria via email erv@vrfb.com.au.
VCOSS Submission to ‘Securing our future economic prosperity – Discussion paper on skills reform’
In April the State Government released an important discussion paper on skills reform, ‘Securing our future economic prosperity.’ VCOSS prepared the following submission to the discussion paper focusing on three main areas of concern to VCOSS and its members:
- Ensuring priority of access for young people to vocational education and training (VET)
- Ensuring equity of access to VET for those most disadvantaged from education, training and workforce participation
- Ensuring that the proposed reforms do not impact negatively on the Victorian community sector
You can download a copy of the submission below.
VCOSS Submission to the Blueprint for Early Childhood Development and School Reform
The Victorian Government is currently developing a Blueprint for Early Childhood Development and School Reform. The Blueprint will be a five year reform agenda for early childhood services and schools focusing on improvement and integration throughout the service system, leading to improved outcomes for children and young people. VCOSS made a submission to the Blueprint consultation and we thank all of the VCOSS members who helped inform our response. VCOSS believes that the Blueprint has the potential to achieve:
The development of a cohesive framework to support and promote the wellbeing, learning, health and development of children and young people and their families;
- Greater integration across the education and care continuum;
- Strengthened linkages between all services that support and promote the learning, health and development and wellbeing of children and young people.
Publications
VCOSS Submission to Securing our future economic prosperity – Discussion paper on skills reform 2008
Blueprint for Early Childhood Development and School Reform Submission 2008
VCOSS submission to Exposure Draft, Education Regulations 2007
VCOSS submission to Exposure Draft, Education and Training Reform Bill 2006
The Rising Cost of Free Education Emergency Relief Victoria and VCOSS, 2005
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