Introducing our Focus Week: Student Support

Skills Education and Velg Training are proud to be working together to offer practitioners in the VET sector a quality, specialised PD Program in March 2023.

Monday 20 - Friday 24 March 2023 is Focus Week: Student Support.

Focus Weeks are a dedicated week of learning opportunities (one webinar per day) specifically designed to increase the knowledge and skills of VET practitioners in targeted topics. Showcasing five content-rich, 60-minutes webinars over five days, each webinar in the Focus Week is focused on a different aspect of Student Support, with each of the five sessions aimed at complementing and increasing existing practice.

Learn from some of Skills Education's most highly regarded presenters as they share their knowledge and valuable content via webinar.

Attend one, some, or all five sessions! The choice is yours.

This Focus Week has been informed by two key inputs:

1. Your feedback!

When asked about preferred topics for 2023, attendees said they wanted more on:

  • Helping struggling students
  • Ways to encourage or impose better time management on students
  • Strategies to assist struggling students
  • Tips to engage trainees and those learners who are sent to study from Centrelink, specific examples that can be used by non-experienced T/As
  • Motivating adult learners
  • Techniques to incorporate recognition of past learning
  • Dealing with students with learning disabilities
  • Methods to try/use on learners online and in the classroom
  • More on maintaining interaction with participants whose motivation and commitment is generally low


2. Sector-wide focus and recognition of the importance of support for, and health and well-being of, students

Including:

  • The National VET Regulator, ASQA's 2022 Spotlight on Student Support series which highlighted best-practice and compliant student support strategies
  • Renewed focus on the requirements to only enroll students into learning programs for which they have the capabilities to successfully complete - including determining when and what support is needed
  • Proposed inclusions in the draft revised Standards for RTOs that emphasise training provider obligations to support students toward successful completion of their studies, and requirements to offer:
    • flexibility in learning and assessment options
    • reasonable adjustment
    • support and equitable access for students with disability
    • recognition of existing skills and knowledge


In response, the outputs are contained in the program schedule for this Focus Week:

All sessions in this special event are $65 inc. GST each, for one attendee. Register for the sessions by clicking the buttons below. 

Register for all sessions at once.

Special note, if you are an existing Velg Training member, you can register via the Velg Training website for $55/person/session 

Date
Webinar and Presenter
Session Overview

Monday, 20 March 2023

10:30 am - 11:30am (AEST)

We all know RTOs should offer recognition for any existing skills and knowledge to potential RPL candidates. But not every assessor reports feeling confident about supporting candidates in this process. In fact, many potential candidates report feeling so overwhelmed with the RPL process that they believe it’s “just easier to do the course."

So, what can RTOs and assessors do to better engage with potential candidates and support them to navigate an RPL pathway?

This session is aimed at providing information for RTOs and assessors to identify where and how persons with existing skills and knowledge can be guided through a recognition process. It will also explore some of the key touch points in current RPL processes that cause the potential candidate the most angst, before going on to identify strategies that can result in a fairer experience for candidates.



Tuesday, 21 March 2023

10:30 am - 11:30am (AEST)

Students come into the learning environment from a range of backgrounds and with varying abilities and needs. And training organisations and their staff have certain responsibilities to ensure everyone has the opportunity to access and participate in the learning.  


Join this session with Darlene to hear about ways to: 

  • Make your organisation more inclusive

  • Understand your legislative responsibility under the Disability Standards for Education

  • Identify and implement inclusive teaching strategies to support students with disability

  • Access the range of resources that support disability inclusion and different disability types


At the end of this session Darlene will also give a sneak preview into the newly developed ADCET resources specifically for students with disability in VET.


No matter your role, this webinar will give you the information you need to confidently include, engage and support students with disability in your learning environment.



Wednesday, 22 March 2023

10:30 am - 11:30am (AEST)

Most of us have been training online for the last couple of years – some even longer. But as the world becomes accustomed to ‘Zoom calls’ and ‘MS Teams’ does this automatically mean best-practice principles of online orientation and engagement are being applied in our delivery of online training and assessment?  

Care must be taken from the get-go to ensure no student is left behind. This session shows how to do it!

Explore:

  • Ways to orient students to the online environment - even when you're not there 
  • What 'presence' is and why it's important  
  • Impact of digital skills/literacy levels on students' ability to navigate online systems - and how you can help
  • Simple techniques you can use to support student confidence online


Thursday, 23 March 2023

10:30 am - 11:30am (AEST)

There are many reasons adults return to formal learning. For example, to work toward a new job, to upskill, or because it’s a workplace direction.

Trouble is, being adults, they've already got busy lives with work, family commitments and other responsibilities, and study is just another thing to fit into a day. They may also have expectations about the learning environment that don't match reality. They might be out of practice with formal approaches to teaching and learning. And, perhaps not everyone has the technology or skills to participate in modern training and assessment.

Sometimes you might even get adults in your classroom that don't want to be there but have to be. As a trainer, how do you deal with this reluctance and other challenges and turn it into something positive? 

Mick Gwyther has a strong history in Adult and Community Education (ACE) and VET and a wealth of experience in supporting adult learners to achieve in their courses!

Join Mick in this session for top tips and to learn more about: 

  • How to deal with reluctant learners and engage students who are attending the class "because they have to"
  • How to support students who are apprehensive about accessing or participating in the training sessions because of limited digital skills
  • Techniques to keep busy adults participating as learners in your course and on track for completion
  • Activity methods to gather measures of participation using adult learning principles
  • Adapting your facilitation style as you go


Friday, 24 March 2023

10:30 am - 11:30am (AEST)

Adult learners bring increased complexity to the classroom – they have distinct expectations from, and motivations for, any learning they undertake, and they bring their life experiences and current circumstances to the learning arena. As trainers and assessors in VET, when we teach adults, we deal with these principles every day.

What’s interesting is that learning trends are moving away from teacher-led instruction to student-centred and social learning – some of the very same principles that underpin adult learning theory and relate to the andragogical model.

In this session, explore how to leverage these principles in your own practice to understand, encourage and engage your adult learners. Also, take a look at how digital teaching tools can support this kind of collaborative development of skills and knowledge.

Join this session to:

  • Refresh on the characteristics of adult learners
  • Update on key points within adult learning theory
  • Examine various instructional approaches that support adult learning theory
  • Explore four (4) different digital technologies ideal for adult learners in a student-centred learning environment and that you can use in your classroom / training room TODAY


All session times are in AEST (Australian Eastern Standard time (Qld time)). Check your local time with this handy time converter.

Answers to FAQs for this event:

  • General registrations can be made via the Velg Training website OR here, at the Skills Education website 
  • Registrations as a Velg Training member can only be made via the Velg Training website
  • All sessions will be via Skills Education's Zoom webinar platform and you will receive email reminders leading up the event from the Skills Education Zoom account
  • To access resources post-event, return to the website where you registered and follow usual procedures to access session materials. All other usual Terms and Conditions from the respective seller of your registration apply
  • Special pricing and access periods apply for this event:
    • $65 per person, per session ($55 for Velg Training members via the Velg Training website)
    • Access the recording and any session resources supplied by presenters for 90 days