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SYSTEM OF INFLUENCE
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australian industry trade college
When AITC Head of Education Eliza Lane is asked about the strategy behind the College’s curriculum, she says industry is at the heart of it all. “In our program, industry leads education. We don’t have education with just a flavour of industry,” she says. “Our strategic direction focuses on being a system of influence in education and we want to influence the way forward for industry education.”
Eliza, along with Deputy Head of Education Lee Smith, and Education Quality and Compliance Manager Toni Banfield, make up the AITC’s central education leadership team. The trio are behind the College’s industry education strategy, driving the delivery of curriculum on each of the five AITC campuses.
“We have a focus on synergy with everything we do,” says Lee. “This includes education, industry, partners, employers – everything.” Lee’s role is to operationalise the College’s education strategy. “It’s my job to ensure there is no separation between education and industry,” says Lee, who leads the Industry and Operations Officers on each campus. The third person in the trio, Toni, works directly with campus leadership to implement quality education with industry relevance. “I oversee the design and implementation of quality innovative curriculum and education programs, which support our young people to become future leaders of industry,” says Toni.
The centralised education leadership team have a pivotal role in the AITC’s philosophy: 1 school, 1 system, 1 way. “This approach will ensure that what we do and what we deliver is the same on each campus,” says Eliza. “It won’t be cookie cutter, as we know the importance of a local focus in each community, but we will consistently deliver the same quality outcomes.”
The trio work across South East Queensland to ensure each campus team is working towards a shared goal. “Working with the teams on each of the campuses is a really important part of our roles, and we are looking forward to a time when it is safe to move around more often,” says Lee.
Eliza, Lee, and Toni come from comprehensive education and training backgrounds, with years of experience in leadership positions both at the AITC and beyond, giving them invaluable
EDUCATING TOMORROW’S INDUSTRY LEADERS
insight into the goals and operation of the College. All three staff members have held the role of Principal at the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast or Redlands campus, prior to their current roles.
“Because we have all been AITC Principals, we understand what that job entails and what is required of that position,” says Lee. “It’s given us the insight into what we need moving forward, and it means we understand the connection between the young people and the College, which is the AITC’s core business.”
Despite an extraordinary 2020, the future of AITC’s unique industry education model is secured under the leadership of Eliza, Lee and Toni.
“To meet the needs of industry, we must think like industry,” says Eliza.
“We are constantly developing an agile system,” says Toni. “We are creating a curriculum that is innovative, creative, and responsive to the needs of industry, with effective teaching and learning. We strive for continuous improvement in the curriculum space.”
Big things are on the horizon to ensure the College continues to thrive long into the future. “What we have is good,” says Lee. “But we have only scratched the surface and our aim is to be great!”
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WORK ETHIC
K E Y T O F I R S T ENERGEX SIGN-UP
DAMIEN GENTNER WAS THE VERY FIRST AITC YOUNG PERSON TO COMMENCE WORK EXPERIENCE WITH ENERGEX, AND ON FRIDAY 15 MAY, HE BECAME THE FIRST COLLEGE YOUNG PERSON TO BE SIGNED-UP TO AN APPRENTICESHIP WITH THE ORGANISATION!
Despite the challenges created by COVID-19 through the first half of the year, Damien’s outstanding work ethic resulted in his sign-up before Energex’s apprenticeship program had even opened for applications.
The Year 12 Redlands young person was placed with Energex for work experience in January after Industry Consultant Glenn English began to forge a relationship between the College and the government-owned energy conglomerate.
Glenn says the partnership with Energex started out with ‘one email and a bit of luck’. “As you can expect, work experience at Energex is highly sought after but I decided it would be worth reaching out,” said Glenn. He sent an email through to an address he found on the Energex website, explaining who the AITC is and how the College works. “About 20 minutes later I got a reply,” said Glenn. Multiple meetings and discussions between Energex and the College then followed, and a couple of months later, on Tuesday 28 January, the AITC saw young people from the Gold Coast, Redlands, and Sunshine Coast campuses begin work experience placements at local Energex bases. At that time, 39 young people from three campuses had submitted applications to complete work experience with the company.
“That was a really exciting time for the College,” says Glenn. “Prior to this, Energex had not taken students for work experience placements. We were very aware that the opportunity presented the potential for Energex to change the way they recruited apprentices each year, as well as enable our young people to gain work experience in a huge company like Energex.”
Damien was among the young people who completed work experience with Energex in the first round of placements in January. He received excellent feedback from the team at Energex Cleveland and, after a brief hiatus due to coronavirus, Glenn received word in mid-May that Damien was officially being offered an apprenticeship with Energex, commencing in January 2021.
“The official Energex apprenticeship program wasn’t open for applicants at that time,” said Glenn. “But Damien’s work ethic impressed the team so much he was offered a position before they had even advertised the program.”
“Damien’s mum Vera was really excited when she heard, and thankful to the teaching and industry staff who supported him and helped prepare him for the workplace,” said Glenn. “We were really impressed by Damien’s excellent feedback, and we look forward to seeing him start in the position in January.”
The AITC extends a big congratulations to Damien for his hard work. We look forward to seeing more young people from across our campuses signed-up into apprenticeships with Energex.
EDUCATING TOMORROW’S INDUSTRY LEADERS
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SUNSHINE COAST
How many senior school students can say they
helped build a school? Our s can! When FKG Group tendered to build three new schools in of industry pathways, including carpentry, fabrication, Palmview and Baringa, they committed to running a training engineering, education support and business. program for local young people. More than 15 aspiring “FKG was planning to only take 12 young people, but they apprentices from the AITC Sunshine Coast campus followed ended up accepting all of them. It’s a fantastic opportunity for a real-world process in securing their work placements with the young people, as they worked on-site for two weeks to the industry giant by submitting an expression of interest and immerse themselves in the world of work,” says Tony. having an interview with FKG site managers. As a result of the comprehensive induction program at the for our young people, because they will be working closely AITC, the young people were work-ready in time to complete with local sub-contractors, which opens the opportunity for the work experience. apprenticeships and traineeships down the line.” “FKG ended up winning the tender, and we had more Each young person spent the first three days on site with conversation about how our young people could get involved,” a mentor, and were then assigned to the sub-contractor in says Industry Consultant Tony Quinn. “The timing lined up well their preferred industry. “We had young people with a range with our Year 10 Rookies Program in that the young people had of career goals working with FKG, as there are plenty of roles completed their site safety training and were ready for work available under the umbrella of construction,” says Tony. experience.” As part of their ‘job application’ to FKG, each young person on the building site of three schools, while still students wrote a small summary about themselves and why they were themselves. When Palmview Sate School, Palmview Special interested in the opportunity, and indicated their preference School and Baringa State Secondary College open in 2021, it for site and trade. FKG Business Development Officer Andy will be AITC young people who will say, “I worked on that site!”. Baxter and site managers then conducted short interviews with the students - all of whom are pursuing a range “It’s a great work experience and networking opportunity These Rookies have had the unique experience of working
a d v e n t u r e c a m p t o c u l i n a r y t r a d e s m o f r
t o c o c o a d e l i g h t s + c o m m e r c i a l
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Full circle
In 2009, Alicia Chapman and Ben Scully commenced at the Australian Industry Trade College. The high school sweethearts from the Gold Coast went on to pursue culinary trades, and 11 years later are both thriving in their chosen fields; Alicia owns an artisan chocolate business and Ben is working in a commercial kitchen.
Images @littlecocoa_au
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Indulge, gift or share
Alicia’s business specialises in handcrafted and bespoke artisan chocolates for all occasions
Below A gift, crafted with Little Cocoa, sent from the AITC to its community
While Alicia and Ben now live and work on the Gold Coast, travel took them across the globe after graduation. Alicia moved to Melbourne for a few years to gain valuable experience at a high-end hospitality venue and a Melbourne chocolate company. She then made the decision to make a much bigger move – to Germany! “I decided to move predominately for the excitement of living overseas, but also as a challenge for my career,” says Alicia. “I was working in a Greek/Portuguese bakery, which was an exciting mix of cuisines. I also spent some time learning chocolate making at the Chocolate Academy in Cologne.”
Around the same time, Ben moved to Cambodia, where his dad was based, for three years. The two parted ways while travelling and living abroad, but reconnected when they both moved back to the Gold Coast. “After spending time overseas and in Melbourne, I realised that the Gold Coast was lacking some specialty chocolate businesses,” Alicia explained. So she set up her own artisan chocolate business, Little Cocoa. “Little Cocoa came about after finding a bean-to-bar chocolate shop in Berlin. This is where the chocolatier sources the cocoa beans, usually direct from the cocoa farmers, then roasts, winnows and grinds the beans into their own signature chocolate,” said Alicia. “Because they control the process, it means that they can toy with the flavours in the beans and create something truly unique. I really loved the whole concept of this and it was the inspiration for getting Little Cocoa up and running.”
Ben and Alicia recently met up with AITC CEO Mark Hands and his Executive Assistant Sandy Stegman. “I love how helpful and connected everyone at the AITC is, even years after graduating,” says Alicia. She and her business are still very much connected to the AITC, even taking on a young person from the Gold Coast campus for work experience in August.
EDUCATING TOMORROW’S INDUSTRY LEADERS
“It’s come full circle!” says Alicia, who is usually a one woman show at Little Cocoa. “It’s been great to have another set of hands, and the placement has enabled her to learn quite a bit about chocolate, and get some well-rounded experience working in a small business.”
While the pandemic did mean Little Cocoa took a hit, Alicia says business is picking up again. “We are working towards and planning for Christmas now. We do a lot of orders for corporate businesses around Christmas time, as well as directly selling to customers.”
“Before the pandemic hit, I had done a lot of leg work to provide businesses with gifts for speakers at their conferences, but of course those events were all cancelled,” says Alicia. “But business is getting back to normal, I have been getting orders ready for Father’s Day, and I am looking toward a busy period at Christmas.”
At the end of Term 2, a special thank you gift - a box of chocolate bark made by Little Cocoa - was sent to all current parents, new families, staff, Board members and members of the company to say thank you for their trust and partnership with the AITC. The aim of the initiative was to show gratitude to our community, who have been supportive of one another and the College during these extraordinary times, and the community response was very positive.
“It was important that we thanked our families and staff for their support through a very significant time, which included the move to learning from home. And what better way than to do this with an AITC alum’s business.”
“We received such wonderful feedback from our community and it was great to see so many parents share about the experience on social media,” said Head of Brand and Customer Experience, Nicole de Vries.
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Lea rning + working in
OUTBACK AUSTRALIA
Opportunities often arise for young people interested in pursuing agriculture to travel to remote areas to complete work experience and start their apprenticeships away from home. Many of these young people will jump at the chance, giving up the comforts associated with living at home with their parents, to make their way to outback Australia to work on the land. To Toowoomba young people, Joe Anderson and Bryce Jacobsen, this is just a typical Industry Block, having spent significant time in outback Australia this year.
EDUCATING TOMORROW’S INDUSTRY LEADERS
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800km
north west of Brisbane
CLERMONT
400km
west of Toowoomba
ST GEORGE
Bryce
Year 11 student Bryce, was offered an agricultural apprenticeship in St George, more than four hours’ west of Toowoomba. Bryce tried his hand at diesel fitting for a short time, but has always enjoyed working outside and with animals, so a career in agriculture was a better fit.
Bryce’s mum reports witnessing a huge change in Bryce’s maturity and independence since he commenced his placement in St George. “Living and working almost 400 kilometres from home has given Bryce the opportunity to learn and grow in a completely new environment that is far removed from what he had previously known,” she said.
Bryce regularly checks in with the College while out at St George, sending photos and updates from his daily life on the farm. The team at Toowoomba recently received a photo of Bryce on the property conducting pregnancy testing on cows, assessing the development of the calves. It’s safe to say not many of our young people will undertake this kind of task on work experience – it gives new meaning to ‘hands-on’ learning!
Joe
Year 10 student Joe, travelled more than 800km north-west to his family’s farm in Clermont in Term 2. “The flexibility of the Learning From Home program gave Joe the opportunity to complete his online learning as well as assist his father around the farm with various tasks,” said Industry Consultant Chris McEwan. “Joe would get up early and get his school tasks completed, then head off to assist around the farm for a few hours, then return in the afternoon to spend a bit more time on school work.”
The AITC team was impressed with Joe’s work ethic and willingness to take on farm work in addition to completing his school tasks. Joe consistently displays the hardworking attitude that industry leaders want in an apprentice. “When Joe returned to the campus, he was awarded one of our emerging leader roles,” said Chris. “Joe is a very hard worker with so much leadership potential. He represents our AITC values and consistently has a happy outlook on life. He is a great person to be around.”
EDUCATING TOMORROW’S INDUSTRY LEADERS
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F U T U R E - P R O O F E D indust ry leader s
Keeping students connected with industry during COVID-19:
Online learning platform
Video interviews with employers
Virtual work experience
EDUCATING TOMORROW’S INDUSTRY LEADERS
The AITC has applied learnings from COVID-19 to its programs and curriculum to ensure graduates leave prepared for a future, which may look different to the one they expected.
“During COVID-19 restrictions, we had to adapt and change like everybody,” said Deputy Head of Education Lee Smith. “For a little while we had young people studying their education from home, but we didn’t want them to lose that exposure to industry. We created virtual work experience, online interviews with local employers, and an online learning platform.”
The College was also committed to ensuring the needs of industry continued to be met throughout the lockdown period in Queensland, during which time some young people were unable to physically attend work placements.
The AITC is continuing to see young people begin in school-based apprenticeships and traineeships, and there are no signs of slowing down. The College selects young people who are hardworking, respectful, and take pride in their work, with a selection process that focusses on these elements, as young people who exhibit strong values and good character embody the qualities employers are looking for.
It is more important than ever that young people looking to pursue a career in industry are prepared and work-ready. The College has created a list of 10 Employability Metrics, which are a strong focus of the industry education curriculum. These metrics have been created based on the needs of industry, and include soft skills like teamwork, initiative and self-management.
The AITC is driven to producing good outcomes for both young people and industry, which involves ensuring young people are supported to become mature, trustworthy and capable tradespeople.
While economic times remain uncertain, the AITC is committed to delivering a quality, future-proofed program that supports young people and industry.
