PRINCIPAL

This week I attended a Bunbury and Geographe Chamber of Commerce Forum looking at employment in the Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing industries. There was representation from industry and from some education and training organisations. Some of the points that came up were;

• The shortage of workers across most industries.
• The wide range of industry and employment opportunities in the South West.
• The number of organisations that are funded to assist people not in the workforce to gain employment.
• The lack of information about how employers and prospective employees access assistance for different purposes and the reliance on word of mouth and networks.
• The fact that apparently 35 % of jobs are not advertised at all, highlighting the importance for job seekers to develop networks and connections with industry.
• The State Priority Occupation List (SPOL) is produced each year to identify skill shortages which then impact on what training is subsidised by the government and which migrants are given priority for immigration. 

I was reminded again of the fantastic reputation of Ag College graduates and that employment doors are opened for them simply because they have been to an Ag College. Evidence of this is the number of employers seeking access to our students to promote apprenticeships and career opportunities. Further evidence is our exceptionally high level of employment post-school. 

Compass Roll Out

You may be aware of a management system called Compass that we started using last year to manage several of our administrative and organisational functions. Up to now, we have used it for internal processes, however we will shift some of our external processes that connect with parents to the platform next term.  Our intent with Compass is that it replaces a number of our existing systems and places them in one location to make it easier for parents to navigate. 

This will necessitate parents having access to Compass and developing familiarity with its use. Don’t worry; it is a simple system to come to grips with and we will make it as easy as possible for you!

Compass will be our point of contact with you for several functions such as….

• Booking parent-staff interviews at designated interview sessions aligned to reporting.
• Distributing daily HACChat and the Weekly Wrap newsletters.
• Publishing Term Calendars, plus any other messages to all parents, groups of parents or individual parents.
• Providing data to enable you to monitor your child's absences and for you to explain absences and medical certificates online.
• Providing excursion details and enabling you to provide your permission and payment online.
• Viewing your child’s timetable. 
• Accessing your child’s behaviour entries.
• Accessing your child’s reports.

In time, we anticipate REACH being replaced or subsumed into Compass as we move towards a single point of contact between you and the College.

Getting Set Up

The process for you to access Compass is straightforward. Next term we will send you a link that will enable you to set up a password.  After that, you will receive notifications through your email and Compass feed telling you that something on Compass needs your attention. It is then a simple matter of clicking on the notification and you will then access Compass through your computer or an app on your mobile device.

Have a great weekend.

Steve