Dr Wayne Miller
Coordinator, vocational education and training
Avondale College of Higher Education
Avondale is both a higher education provider and a provider of vocational education and training (VET). State regulatory authorities recently conducted audits of all private Registered Training Organisations in Australia. After a comprehensive review of Avondale’s VET sector, the senior member of the audit team stated that Avondale presented as “a model of best practice.” There were no non-compliance issues.
Avondale passed another significant milestone in 2010, gaining Commonwealth approval to offer VET FEE-HELP to students in the Diploma of Outdoor Recreation. VET FEE-HELP is a Commonwealth loan scheme assisting eligible students with all or part of their tuition costs. Eligible students in Avondale’s Diploma of Outdoor Recreation do not need to pay tuition fees up front. The fees can be deferred and repaid to the Commonwealth via the tax system over a period of years after the student graduates and begins earning above a specified level.
A third milestone in 2010 was Avondale’s re-registration for a further five years as a Registered Training Organisation. Re-registration was granted without the usual re-registration site audit, a further acknowledgement of the quality of Avondale’s vocational education and training sector.
Outdoor Recreation
Avondale offers two training package-based programs in Outdoor Recreation, the Certificate III in Outdoor Recreation and the Diploma of Outdoor Recreation. We were delighted with a record enrolment this year with 11 in Certificate III and 19 in the Diploma. We believe the record enrolment in 2011 is a result of VET FEE-HELP approval.
If you were to visit the Outdoor Recreation Department on the ground floor of the Chan Shun Auditorium, you would meet the brightest-eyed students you could hope to see. Some might rattle as they walk with an assortment of hardware as they prepare to hone their roping skills in the nearby Watagan Mountains. Some may be loading sea kayaks in anticipation of a day trip to Broken Bay, Port Stephens or Port Jackson, where emerging guiding skills can be put to the test.
Kahleb Radford mastering the white water
A highlight for diploma students this year was a four-day skill development adventure hosted by the New Zealand Kayak School on pristine big-flowing rivers on the west coast of the South Island. When I asked three participants why the trip stands out, they described the experience as “a hard-hitting white water experience. We learnt so much in four days,” they said. “We not only learnt to paddle well but to instruct well.”
Outdoor Recreation also supplies services to Avondale’s higher education sector, enabling students in selected degree units in teacher education courses to gain skills and qualifications (dual-badging), as recommended by the outdoor recreation industry for persons who will work in outdoor adventure programs.
The Outdoor Recreation Department is also expanding its partnership arrangements with Adventist Schools Australia, offering web-based support to school principals, outdoor education coordinators and camping program supervisors with resources such as Standard Operating Procedures, notification forms and links to industry-based bodies. Through a partnership with Gilson College, Macquarie College and Avondale School, we train their teachers through short courses and then these teachers in turn mentor our Outdoor Recreation students in the field during work placements.
While rock climbing, abseiling, sea kayaking, white water kayaking and bushwalking are fun and provide the endorphin kick some of us enjoy, they also foster personal growth and development in our adventure activity leaders-in-training.
While we integrate faith and learning in all Outdoor Recreation units, certain units are specifically designed to enhance students’ understanding and experience of Christian spirituality. In these units, aptly called Visionary Leadership in the Outdoors I and II, Adrian Ellison mentors students in the religious, ethical and social values of Avondale’s philosophy of outdoor recreation. What a blessing that our students are beneficiaries of Adrian’s fifty years of experience in adventure-based learning from a Christian perspective!
Tags: Faculty of Education Business and Science, School of Education