vet outbound mobility forum: current practice – future resources melbourne mcg, 6 may

Outbound mobility programs by VET providers offer a wide range of international learning experiences for students.

Some of these are: study tours; short language or other courses; internships; volunteer programs; work experience, or exchange programs across a range of vocational fields and qualification levels, either during or post study.

For students, an international study or work experience has a long lasting positive impact on personal growth and maturity while forming friendships, making future business or trade contacts, and internationalising skills so highly valued by potential employers.

For training providers, offering outbound mobility opportunities makes study attractive to students who aspire to broaden their experience and globalise their skills, thereby improving their employability. This reflects positively on your student destination outcomes while adding to your range of marketing strategies. Outbound mobility programs also enable you to establish working arrangements with offshore partners, which may in turn lead to student exchanges attracting international students onshore to study at your college.

ACPET is participating in a VET Outbound Mobility Project, funded by DEEWR and conducted by the Australian Institute for Mobility Overseas, to advocate the benefits of Outbound Mobility to VET providers, and to support existing VET Outbound Mobility activities.

A key activity of this initiative is the VET Outbound Mobility Forum: Current Practice – Future Resources to be held at the MCG on 6 May.

The Forum features high level executives from BHP Billiton, Atlas Heavy Engineering and a leading hotel chain sharing their experiences and perceptions on the value to Australian students of an international training experience. The diversity of outbound mobility experiences possible in the VET sector will be highlighted through three panels. Panellists will present case studies from the perspective of program managers, teaching staff and students. Participants will reflect on the case studies in small facilitated groups with their discussions feeding into the development of a set of resources, templates, tools and case studies that support mobility in VET institutes.

This is an opportunity to contribute ideas to the toolkit and shape a resource that will benefit the whole sector and enrich the learning experience of students. The Forum is also an invaluable opportunity to get an up-to-date understanding of the current state-of-play of outbound mobility in the Australian vocational education and training sector. Participants will hear opinions on what are the key opportunities and issues in this area, but will also be asked to share their own perspectives and experiences to inform the discussions. An issues paper and a list of possible inclusions for the toolkit will be provided prior to the Forum. Forum organisers ask participants to bring ideas and/or samples (e.g. on USB) of those inclusions already listed as well as others for consideration.

The Forum is a free event being held in Melbourne at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Yarra Park Room on Thursday 6 May 2010.

To view the full agenda or to register go to http://www.endeavour.deewr.gov.au/outbound_mobility/

To register for the Forum simply fill in the attached form and return to Kadi Taylor via kadi [dot] taylor [at] deewr [dot] gov [dot] au (email) or fax to (02) 02 6123 5737 by COB Tuesday 27 April 2010.

Or for further information go to http://www.endeavour.deewr.gov.au/outbound_mobility/ or call Kadi on (w) 02 6240 5906 or (m) 0421 071 213.