REGIONAL EDUCATION, SKILLS AND JOBS PLAN
New South Wales – Far South COast
2012 – 2014
JULY 2013
This plan was first published in July 2012. This is the July 2013 edition.
Details in this report are correct at time of drafting.
This report can be found at the Regional Education, Skills and Jobs webpage (www.deewr.gov.au/resj) or the MyRegion website (www.myregion.gov.au).
For more information about this plan, please contact:
The Office of Regional Education, Skills and Jobs
GPO Box 9880
Canberra ACT 2601
Email:
ISBN:
978-0-642-78615-9 [PDF]
978-0-642-78616-6 [DOCX]
With the exception of the Commonwealth Coat of Arms and where otherwise noted all material presented in this document is provided under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/).
The details of the relevant licence conditions (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/legalcode) are available on the Creative Commons website (accessible using the links provided) as is the full legal code for the CCBY 3.0 AU licence.
The document must be attributed as the Regional Education, Skills and Jobs Plan 2012-14 – Far South Coast.
Disclaimer about data used in this plan
Data used in the development of this plan comes from a variety of sources and was correct at time of drafting. This document should not be used as a data source as data referred to may have been updated or reformulated since the publication of the plan. Refer to primary sources for confirmation of data.
Contents
Regional Education, Skills and Jobs Plans 4
Strategies 4
Community engagement 4
Implementation 4
Executive summary 5
Characteristics of the region 8
Population 8
Early childhood education and care 9
School education 10
Tertiary education and training 13
Jobs, skills and workforce development 14
Issues, goals and strategies 16
Issue 1 Early childhood services in the region face immediate and long-term challenges in up-skilling their workforce. 17
Issue 2 Proportion of students disengaging from education without Year 12 or equivalent attainment. 19
Issue 3 Awareness of local options/pathways to higher and tertiary education. 22
Issue 4 Challenging labour market with high youth and Indigenous unemployment, skill shortage areas and an ageing workforce. 23
Appendices 25
Appendix A — Stakeholders 25
Appendix B — Existing related plans and strategies 26
Abbreviations 28
Regional Education, Skills and Jobs Plans
The Australian Government announced the Regional Education, Skills and Jobs Plans initiative in the 2011–12 Budget, as part of the Building Australia’s Future Workforce package. The initiative addresses four key areas of the Australian Government’s productivity and social inclusion agendas: early childhood education and care; Year 12 attainment; participation in vocational and higher education; and local job opportunities.
The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) has deployed 34 Regional Education, Skills and Jobs (RESJ) Coordinators to work with local stakeholders to develop Regional Education, Skills and Jobs Plans for the 46 Regional Development Australia (RDA) areas that cover non-metropolitan Australia.
The plans present locally identified opportunities and challenges and outline local strategies to improve education, skills and jobs outcomes in regional Australia.
For more information, including the contact details of your local RESJ Coordinator, please refer to the Regional Education, Skills and Jobs webpage at www.deewr.gov.au/resj.
Strategies
Each plan reflects community priorities and includes goals and local strategies to achieve the community’s objectives, based on four key themes: early childhood education and care; school education; tertiary education and training; and jobs, skills and workforce development.
The plans build on the range of services and programs already offered by DEEWR and the strategies draw on the programs of other government agencies and the opportunities arising from major local projects.
Community engagement
The plans were developed by RESJ Coordinators with close community engagement and include views from young people, parents, employers, educators, service providers, peak bodies, community leaders, government organisations and agencies, and other interested individuals and organisations. The plans draw strongly upon existing strategic plans in each region, including the local RDA regional plan.
DEEWR acknowledges the traditional owners of the Far South Coast RDA region and their elders past and present recognising their continuing connection to country. This plan strives to build and harness mutually respectful relationships and reflect community priorities in education, skills and jobs development for the region.
Implementation
The RESJ Coordinator, on behalf of DEEWR, will oversee the implementation of the strategies and promote and coordinate linkages between the government agencies, providers and stakeholders involved in this plan’s implementation.
Progress towards achieving the goals within each plan will be closely monitored, while stakeholders will be kept informed through participation in plan strategies.
This edition incorporates strategies that respond to changes in local circumstances identified through continuing community input or changing government priorities in regional Australia as well as access to new data. The plans continue to be living and responsive documents that will be revisited throughout their implementation to June 2014.
Executive summary
The Far South Coast was historically an agricultural region. This tradition persists today with many goods being successfully exported around the world, including dairy products and abalone. The region also produces timber, beef and wine. Around 400 kilometres of scenic coast and extensive areas of national and state parks contribute to the Far South Coast’s renown as a popular tourist destination. According to Regional Development Australia, more than four million visitors travel to the region each year. The region is made up of a number of communities covered by three Local Government Areas: Shoalhaven, Eurobodalla and Bega Valley.
Based on a comprehensive environmental scan and community consultation, the key education, skills and jobs challenges identified for the region include:
· the requirements of the national quality reforms in early childhood education and care
· the proportion of young people disengaging from education without Year 12 or equivalent attainment
· awareness of the local options and pathways to higher and tertiary education
· a challenging labour market with high youth and Indigenous unemployment, skill shortages and an ageing workforce.
The key goals of the Regional Education, Skills and Jobs Plan are as follows:
· early childhood education and care providers are supported and have strategies in place to meet immediate and longer term workforce development needs
· flexible education pathways are implemented to align early childhood education and care workforce with immediate and future employment needs
· schools and the community are informed of programs and initiatives to support at-risk young people, including alternative learning pathways and school-based apprenticeships and traineeships
· schools and the community are informed about the options and pathways to higher and tertiary education
· increase opportunities and access to training and employment to meet current and future skills needs in the region.
The Far South Coast region has a RDA Committee with a broad plan that includes opportunities for education, skills and employment. The Northern half of the Far South Coast region is part of the Illawarra priority employment area, which has a Local Employment Coordinator (LEC) in place. The Far South Coast RESJ Plan complements the existing goals and strategies in the RDA Plan and the LEC’s Regional Employment Plan.
Some outcomes achieved by the RESJ Coordinator working with local stakeholders include:
· Partnering with NSW State Training Services, University of Wollongong, Eurobodalla Adult Education Inc and RDA Far South Coast to develop Career Pathways to Health. The project, funded through NSW State Training Services Pathways for School Leavers program, provides support and mentoring to 12 young school leavers who are underemployed or unemployed in the Eurobodalla to complete a partial Certificate III and full Certificate IV in Aged Care, and a University of Wollongong bridging course to gain a guaranteed place studying nursing at University of Wollongong Batemans Bay Campus in 2014.
· Partnering with the Eurobodalla Shire Council and South Coast Workplace Learning Partnership Brokers to develop a successful application for funding through NSW Office of Communities Youth Opportunities program. The funding will support a project involving a group of people aged 17-24 and suitable mentors to design, develop and manage a social media platform that better connects youth in the region with their community. Participants will also gain an accredited unit in a range of business and technology subject areas as a pathway to further study and develop the technology to bring the concept to life. The project is being delivered by the Eurobodalla Shire Council and as at March 2013, seven young people and six mentors were engaged in the project.
· Contributing to the development of a National Workforce Development Fund Project with Shoalhaven City Council, Australian College of Higher Studies and Services Industry Skills Council to up skill caravan park managers in sustainability practices, improve environmental practices and increase business development skills. As at March 2013, six caravan park managers were undertaking training.
· Coordinating an early childhood education and care roundtable with 55 attendees in the Shoalhaven in June 2012 and facilitating a group of stakeholders to implement identified priorities. The group, called the Shoalhaven Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) Alliance, has:
· Conducted an online survey to identify the training and employment needs of Shoalhaven ECEC providers. Sixty-two per cent responded and the data shows the huge opportunities for training and professional development in the region.
· Created a Facebook page to encourage Shoalhaven ECEC providers to communicate, share good news stories and information.
· Piloted GOVDEX, an online social media forum to share information from DEEWR and for early childhood education and care providers to ask questions and communicate with each other.
· Collaborating with Regional Development Australia ACT, Southern Inland and Far South Coast to successfully gain funding in January 2013 for the South East Region of Renewable Energy Excellence (SERREE). SERREE, utilising the Skills for the Carbon Challenge funding from the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science, Climate Change, Research and Tertiary Education, will map thecapabilityof the region's renewable energy sector to explore opportunities to bring training, skills and jobs in this sector to the region. As a member of the SERREE Project Steering Committee, the RESJ Coordinator will continue to work with partners to constructively develop projects which add value and lead to training and jobs in the Renewable Energy Sector in the region.
· Contributed to the coordination and implementation of the Eurobodalla Early Childhood Educators and Service Providers Forum in February 2013 to support Early Childhood services to access services for the children in their care and their families. The forum was a great success with 84 attendees and lots of positive feedback fromPreschools and Early Childhood Directors around increased understanding andnew contacts for referring children and their families for support.
Characteristics of the region
This section sets out the characteristics of the region identified through a comprehensive environmental scan and local consultations. The information detailed in this section is not exhaustive of the characteristics of the region, but provides an overview and insight to some of the challenges facing the region.
To guide the RESJ Coordinator’s identification of issues and engagement with the community, various data sets have supported the development of this plan. Data used in the development of this plan was sourced from DEEWR, the Australian Bureau of Statistics and other relevant sources. Data referred to may have been reformulated and was correct at time of drafting. Different data sets are refreshed at different intervals, for example, unemployment rates are updated monthly for national and state/territory figures and quarterly for regions.
Population
According to the 2011 Census, the estimated population of the region was 166,532, more than half of whom lived in the Shoalhaven Local Government Area(96,043).
The traditional owners of the land are the Yuin people and the Tharawal people (also known as Dharawal). At the 2011 Census, 4.6percent of the population identified as being of Indigenous origin, which was above the New South Wales and national average of 2.5percent. Within the region the Indigenous population varies with 2.9 per cent in the Bega Valley, 4.7 per cent in the Shoalhaven and 5.1per cent in the Eurobodalla. Data from the NSW Department of Aboriginal Affairs in 2009predicted the Aboriginal population of the greater area of South-East New South Wales, which includes Eurobodalla and Bega Valley, will increase approximately 35percent by 2021. In the Illawarra region, which includes the Shoalhaven, it is predicted to increase approximately 50percent by 2021.
At the 2011 Census, 19percent of the population in the region were born overseas (or origin not stated), well below the national average of 31 percent and the New South Wales average of 32percent.
The NSW Department of Planning (2006 and 2010) estimates that the population of the FarSouth Coast has doubled over the past 25 years and will increase by an additional 55,900 people by 2036. This figure takes into account the young people who will leave the region to pursue higher education or employment as well as those retiring or moving into the region.
The Far South Coast region has an ageing population with 2011 Census data showing the median age of residents as approximately 50 years in the Eurobodalla, 38 years in the Bega Valley and 46 years in Shoalhaven. The median age for Indigenous people, however, was much lower at approximately 21 years in the Eurobodalla, 18 years in the Bega Valley and 20 years in the Shoalhaven.
The ageing population will place pressure on the region but also provides opportunities to develop a skilled and job ready workforce in areas such as aged care facilities, recreation, shopping, health and medical services. There are also opportunities to use the growing number of experienced and qualified people as mentors, advisers and volunteers to meet some of the challenges in the region. The high and increasing number of young Indigenous people in the region also presents opportunities to develop a workforce to meet the needs of this changing demographic.
Early childhood education and care
The early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector covers public, private and community-based service providers and includes preschools, occasional care, family day care, long day care and outside school hours care services. In 2011, there were approximately 8690 children aged 0–4 years on the FarSouthCoast (NSW Department of Planning, 2010).