City LLEN News
The 2021 Annual General Meeting
Held on Tuesday the 27th of April, this year’s AGM was once again online. We launched the new Jobs Victoria Advocates program and introduced our new staff. During the meeting we discussed the great achievements of the LLEN staff in 2020 as well as noting the terrific hard work and amazing commitment demonstrated by all the teachers in our midst to support their students. Our guests speakers spoke about the impact of the pandemic based on where they worked and their experiences.
Sally Lasslet, the Principal of Hester Hornbrook Academy spoke about the work her teachers did making sure their students received care packs, dongles, IT equipment and the welfare and emotional support needed to be engaged. It was interesting to hear how they kept their schools open in case students needed a safe place to be, this resulted in one student attending every day for the entire lockdown period -she had no where else to go. It became increasingly obvious that many students thrived learning on line and remotely, it is recommended that more flexible learning options be funded going forward for government schools to allow this for students who need to learn this way. Sally also noted that many students sleep hygiene practices were all over the place and this impacted their capacity to engage during the daytime. Teachers work load also increased exponentially during covid impacting their wellbeing also.
Our next speaker was Kath Curry, General Manager for Health and Education at Torrens University spoke at length about the student experience and the impact of remote learning, she noted that students were keen to get back to attending live this year. Prior to the pandemic Torrens University already delivered 6000 online learning sessions in the year prior so it was not such a leap to this method of education for them with about 50% of students already engaging online One key challenge they faced was how to best respond to mental health challenges and develop resources to support their students.
The final speaker for the evening was Hashwina Vimalarajan from the Centre for Multicultural Youth who spoke about the hardships faced by international students who remained in Australia during the pandemic last year, this included the loss of part-time work, lack of supports and university/school interactions with other students leading to mental health problems.
Please review our 2020 Annual Report here (link)
JVA
As the newly appointed Jobs Victoria Advocates, we are both very excited and grateful to have joined the Capital City LLEN team. As JVA’s, our role centralises around supporting and engaging jobseekers within our respective communities. To achieve this, we assist jobseekers with navigating employment by recognising the broader ‘ecosystem’ of services within the City of Melbourne region. Particularly, we aim to support the plethora of individuals who may be struggling with the impacts of unemployment, which has been exacerbated due to the COVID-19 pandemic.We aim to set up and connect with people in libraries, community centres, public housing foyers, shopping centres and other community venues / locations that will essentially broaden our reach within the community. Ultimately, ensuring that we connect with as many people as possible and alert them to the supports that are available to them.So far, we have attended the Kathleen Syme Library, where we spend Tuesday afternoons chatting and interacting with the guests who enter the space. We have also visited various organisations to introduce ourselves and the program, as well as familiarise ourselves with the services the organisations have on offer. We would love to continue broadening our relationships with different services in the community, so please feel free to reach out to us through the emails provided below.
Prinscillakwarteng@cityllen.org.au
https://jobs.vic.gov.au/about-jobs-victoria/our-programs/advocates
2020 VCAL Achievement Awards
City LLEN Staff Members attended the 2020 VCAL Achievement awards. This is always an inspiring and important event to recognise the efforts of VCAL Students across the state, with a particular emphasis on the resilience of students to implement projects remotely and with their regular classes disrupted, many students shifted their focus to develop programs to specifically support others during this time.
The Acting Premier, Minister for Education and Minister for Mental Health, the Hon James Merlino participated in the ceremony, also praising students for their resilience throughout the pandemic.
Follow the link below to heat student speeches and for a list of award recipients.
https://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/news-and-events/events-and-awards/vcalachievementawards/Pages/Index.aspx
Gen Vic's Pre- Budget Breakfast
City LLEN staff also attended the Gen Vic Pre Budget Breakfast. It was wonderful to share a great event supporting women of all ages. Gen Vic released their submission to the 2021-2022 state budget.
The report was developed after months of consultation with member organisations – 42 gender equality entities with expertise in gendered economics, job creation and placement, health, sport, the arts, housing and social welfare.
The submission sets out six priorities for government spending:
- Gender equal job creation;
- Boosting women’s health services;
- Gender responsive budgeting architecture;
- Imagining a care economy;
- Creating a gender and disaster workforce;
- Strengthening gender equal communities.
You can read the report via this link
Structured Workplace Learning News
The City LLEN SWL Coordinator has spent Term 1 and Term 2 going out to schools to work with VCAL and VET students from Kensington Community High School, River Nile School and St Aloysius to help coordinate SWL opportunities for students, this includes intensive counselling work with individual year 11 & 12 students from Kensington Community High School to help them work through barriers so that they are placement and work ready.
The City LLEN SWL Coordinator has also been supporting Kensington Community High School with their inclusion project as well as organising an Industry tour for the students with William Angliss Institute in response to the large number of VCAL students who are interested in hospitality pathways.