this week in social inclusion and diversity
National Monday Update Issue:
1. International students with a disability
2. Name change: Qld VET Development Centre
3. English skills assistance for people who are Deaf
4. Welcome to the National VET Equity Advisory Council (NVEAC)
5. 1000 voices
6. WAVE
7. Using Web 2.0 in Your Teaching
1. International students with a disability
The Australian Disability Clearinghouse on Education and Training (ADCET) as a factsheet on international students with a disability. This factsheet provides an overview of RTO and learner responsibilities.
The statement from the factsheet below may be helpful for you when negotiating disability budgets. Please access the factsheet for the full context.
'Under the Higher Education Funding Act, 1988 (HEFA) resources provided to institutions by the Commonwealth for the education of Australian students cannot be used for the specific provision of services for fee paying international students. Neither can international students be charged on an individual basis for accommodations or disability support services provided to them by the university.
Fees charged to international students must be sufficient to cover all services provided. Some institutions have developed procedures whereby a small percentage of the fees paid by international students is held in a separate fund and used to pay for disability support services when the need arises.'
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2. Name change: Qld VET Development Centre
Product Services has a new name that better reflects the work conducted. The new name is the Queensland VET Development Centre (QVDC) and incorporates the Strategy and Research (Equity) team.
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3. English skills assistance for people who are Deaf
'The Grammar Disk' was released in May 2009 to assist people who are deaf to improve their workplace reading and writing skills in English. It is a multimedia resource developed in Auslan.
Developed by Agenda Communication Pty Ltd, WestOne Services, the WA Deaf Society, and Deaf Consultant Josie Hodgetts, it is available for purchase ($50 + GST) from here
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4. Welcome to the National VET Equity Advisory Council (NVEAC)
The National VET Equity Advisory Council (NVEAC) has been established to provide high level advice to the Ministerial Council for Tertiary Education and Employment (MCTEE) to guide equity reform in the national training system.
The NVEAC is a single layer advisory body which will consider the issues and barriers that affect all equity groups. Recognising that many clients in the VET system experience multiple disadvantage, the new Council will identify shared priorities for all equity groups, while continuing to build on the work of the previous advisory groups around the particular barriers experienced by people with a disability and Indigenous Australians.
The membership of the new Council reflects the diverse range of stakeholders within the sector, including people with a disability, Indigenous Australians, refugees, homeless youth, and people from a non-English speaking background. Practitioners whose role is to work in the education and training sectors with, or on behalf of, disadvantaged learners are also represented on the Council.
The principles of the National VET Equity Advisory Council (NVEAC) are:
- Equity is everybody’s business
- The learner is at the centre of the system
- Equity considerations must be integrated into all aspects of the VET system
- Advice to the VET system should be based on approaches that are evidence based, action oriented, flexible and/or innovative
- Improved data collection, performance measures and targets are important
- Systemic barriers that prevent the achievement of inclusion and equity for VET learners must be addressed
- Sustained support and long-term investment are fundamental to improving outcomes for equity groups.
5. 1000 voices
1000 Voices is the flagship research and public awareness project of the Griffith Abilities Research Program. 1000 Voices is seeking life stories from people with a disability from around the world. With these stories, they hope to:
- Open eyes and ears to the diverse lived experiences of people with disability
- Provide opportunities for people with disability to have their own voice in determining how their lives are seen and heard; and
- Make sure that the voices of people with a disability become part of ongoing research, service, and policy development activity in Australia and beyond.
Further information and how to send stories is available from here
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6. WAVE
Women in Adult and Vocational Education (WAVE) has recently released their policy background paper: Women and Vocational Education & Training: Strategies for Gender Inclusive VET Reform.
WAVE identifies that this is a critical time to 'promote the inclusion of women and girls as evidenced by the contents of both the COAG reform agenda, and the establishment of a new 'equity' model for VET nationally through NVEAC.'
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7. Using Web 2.0 in Your Teaching - Ideas, Applications and Affordances for Enhanced Educational Outcomes
ACPET Queensland’s Executive in Residence, Donna McDonald, recently attended a seminar by Dr Matthew Allen at the University of Queensland on new ideas and resources available through Web 2.0 for improved teaching. You can access a summary of the presentation from here
(Slides 16 and 24 have lists of useful websites)
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