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Linno Rhodes, the Fellow, has worked with adult literacy learners for over 15 years and through her experience, recognises that learners often have a host of other issues that impact on their ability to participate, engage and thrive in the adult learning environment. The reasons adults may not have 'functional literacy skills' are diverse and differ from person to person. They may be multi-layered and involve a diagnosed learning disability or not. The reasons could include missing a lot of school as a child due to health issues, being a carer for a sick parent, living in a family with addiction issues, moving frequently or they may have experienced trauma that impacted their learning.

The Fellowship focussed on the exploration of various areas of neuroscience that can help to address these issues. Within the field of psychology there are key theories that offer an insight into the way people learn, our memory function, behaviours, perception and consciousness. These theories are grounded in neuroscience and the Fellow chose to investigate the specific areas of - attachment theory, mindsight, mindset, regulation of emotional responses and mirror neurons in order to increase teachers capacity to work with adult literacy learners to benefit both learners and teachers.

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The International Specialised Skills Institute (ISSI) is an independent, national organisation that works with Australian governments, industry and education institutions to enable individuals to gain enhanced skills and experience in traditional trades, professions and leading-edge technologies. Fellows travel overseas and, upon their return, are required to pass on what they have learned through a detailed report, recommendations for improvements and delivering training activities.

The purposes of this fellowship were to: gain insight into future trends for the Australian meat industry, based on current European trends; provide advice on alternative training qualifications and models for meat retailers (butchers); and gain insight into potential models for post-trade training for Australian butchers. The author visited butcher shops, meat departments and food halls in supermarkets/department stores and training organisations in the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium and Denmark over a five-week period in 2012. Show less

The Social Services, including Disability Support Services are the fastest growing sector of the Australian workforce, providing significant employment opportunities for disadvantaged cohorts to enter the labour market and build meaningful careers. There is a unique opportunity for people with disability (PWD) to become workers within the growing disability support field. The Fellow's underpinning objective when undertaking this Fellowship was to create positive change for people with disabilities through the examination of international best practice and its potential for application in an Australian context. Specifically, the Fellow wanted to investigate examples of international best practice in integrated vocational education for people with disabilities focussing on the following key elements: (1) the classroom environment, and how the physical dimensions of space create inclusivity; (2) the additional support provided to individuals with disabilities to participate in mainstream VET; (3) pedagogical considerations; and (4) pre-service training and ongoing professional development undertaken by educators.

The Fellow chose to focus on training which allows people with disabilities to work in the disability sector. The second element the Fellow researched was the employment offered to these students once they have completed their course of study. The Fellow was keen to discover the types of supports offered to them from recruitment into vocational education, throughout the length of the course, during the transition to employment and once in the workforce. The key learnings of the Fellowship included; the level of importance placed on the teachers education specifically in disability, prior to working in the field, the self-education offered to students to learn more about their own disability, the impacts of this on how they learn and what they can do to address these impacts, the deliberate differences in learning environments and how small changes can make huge impacts on learning and classroom productivity and the importance of the government setting minimum participation numbers for people with disability engagement in higher education.

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This Fellowship enabled the author to complete a course of study 'Decentralised Water supply and Sanitation' at United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO-IHE) Institute for Water Education in Delft, The Netherlands. The knowledge and skills gained from this course were enlightening to the Fellow. The concept of 'closing the loop' in our water and sanitation systems and the compelling reasons for this were cemented in the mind of the Fellow. The plumbing industry is a critical sector if sustainable water supply and sanitation systems are to be advanced and achieved; thus 'closing the loop'. The plumbing industry's ability or inability to keep up with advancements in this sector could mean the difference between new systems installed correctly and maintained properly, enhancing the health of the population and environment; or whereby systems are let down by the people registered and licensed to install and maintain these systems. Plumbing training must improve if it is to equip plumbers with the necessary skills to close the gap.

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With agricultural industries integrating more technology, work ready graduates will need digital skills and digital literacy to prosper. TAFEs providing students with a head start makes good sense. This Fellowship aimed to explore the benefits of assessment strategies which utilise mainstream technology to provide authentic evidence of competency, engage learners and develop their 21st century skills. The Fellow went in search of examples where students capture, share and collaborate on assessments using mainstream technology, to authentically demonstrate their skills and knowledge. The Fellow's research included stops in Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands with visits to agricultural training colleges, University faculties and a veterinary consultancy group in September and October of 2017.

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This Fellowship has allowed the Fellow to undertake a study tour of two San Francisco based adult education facilities and attend two eLearning conferences in the USA, to better understand how learning platforms and learning tools are selected to encourage both teaching staff and students to engage fully in blended learning. The Fellowship focused on three key areas: (1) the range of current technology choices available when developing blended learning courses; (2) the significance of teacher technological proficiency when implementing blended learning; and (3) the overall framework for implementation of successful blended learning programs for TAFE learners and teachers.

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The International Specialised Skills Institute (ISSI) is an independent, national organisation that works with Australian governments, industry and education institutions to enable individuals to gain enhanced skills and experience in traditional trades, professions and leading-edge technologies. Fellows travel overseas and, upon their return, are required to pass on what they have learned through a detailed report, recommendations for improvements and delivering training activities.

Specific learning difficulties (SpLD) encompasses a range of language based processing difficulties that affects the process of reading, spelling and mathematics. Education for students with SpLD in Australia is currently lagging behind world best practice, especially for young adults. Teachers lack the knowledge and skills to provide appropriate support because of inadequate training in this area. In this report, the Fellow, working in the Community and Transitional Education (CATE) department at Holmesglen Institute of TAFE, details visits to schools in England and the US to learn about best practice education models.

The specific aims of the Fellowship were: (1) to investigate how SpLD specific schools/colleges in England and America are set up to provide and cater for students with SpLD; in particular the similarities and differences between the structures of the three different schools to give three varied examples of best practice that education providers and educators can utilise and model in Australia; (2) to explore and investigate current teaching methodologies, practice and classroom strategies used in the three education models at the Shapwick and Blossom schools in England and at Landmark College in America, with the aim to replicate some of this in an Australian teaching setting; and (3) to understand how student outcomes are monitored and assessed with regard to wellbeing and academic success in all three educational models, to enable Australian educators to understand and adopt worldwide current assessment tools to show student success. Show less

In response to a large sectoral skills, network and knowledge gap, the Fellow, a leatherworker and designer, undertook an exploration of leather making, tanning and design through Italy. In this report, comparisons of teaching styles, methodologies and techniques are made, while the historical and cultural impact of leatherworking traditions, and more broadly artisan crafts, are examined. The report seeks to highlight the widespread value of leatherworking and specialised trades, encourage industry growth in production and design, and makes the recommendation for an inclusive Australian leatherworking training program.

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With the need to focus on design-driven innovation it has become evident that there is a need to implement fashion knitwear into education nationally. Knits are a huge part of the apparel market of today that sees comfort as a priority as opposed to a previous world of non-stretch apparel. Hence, Australia must strive for a skilled fashion knitwear workforce that understands the technical skills, but more importantly has a design-driven focus; that is, can work backwards from the design and price point of the finished product whilst also designing within the technicalities and limitations of the machinery. Previously knitwear has been taught within the textile design and development sector of education, focusing on technology as opposed to designing fashion product. With industry supporting the need to train fashion knit specialist designers it is evident that knitwear must be included within the current fashion design programs nationally.

The Fellow visited universities that are leaders in the delivery of knit specialisation education to investigate current teaching strategies in fashion knitwear. Universities visited included Nottingham Trent, De Montfort and Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in the United Kingdom and Hong Kong Polytechnic and Hong Kong Design Institute in Hong Kong. Information gathered will be incorporated into teaching and learning strategies in textiles, clothing and footwear (TCF) education nationally that will inevitably lead to increased innovation in the Australian TCF industries knitwear sectors, thus ensuring Australia a more competitive edge internationally.

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Australian manufacturers, especially small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs), cannot compete with low-cost manufacturing countries. The high cost Mittelstand companies in Germany, recognised as world leaders in engineering, practice many of the skills required for a successful manufacturing industry of the future. Research has identified that Australian manufacturing SMEs would benefit from better management and leadership skills and this report discusses the potential to use Mittelstand management practices as a benchmark to improve these skills. After a four week trip to Germany to interview selected stakeholders, 12 recommendations were made to the Australian Manufacturing Industry. The two major recommendations considered to be essential to fostering the enhancement of skills in Australian Manufacturing SMEs include: (1) the development of a customised management and leadership skills package in preference to 'generalised' management courses currently on offer; and (2) using the Offensive Mittelstand model as a framework, develop a 'business assessment tool' suitable for Australian manufacturing SMEs.

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