13 Jun The Hotline heads south
Liam Frost-Camilleri President of VALBEC, and presenter Elizabeth Gunn catching up with Vanessa Iles and Lindy Cassidy from the Hotline
We visited Melbourne in May for the inspiring VALBEC conference.
The well-attended conference featured a warm welcome from VALBEC President, Liam Frost-Camilleri and a rich and engaging keynote address from Trace Ollis, Associate Professor from Deakin University. The range of informative and stimulating concurrent sessions highlighted the diversity of LLND practice in Victoria. It was also great to hear the voices of learners from YAMEC – the Young Adult Migrant Education Program.
Trace Ollis reinforced the importance and success of place based adult education learning in neighbourhood centres. She reminded us that learning is a collective process and of the vital role of the teacher/student relationship in building learner self-belief and reconstructing negative views about being poor learners.
The conference provided an opportunity to catch up face to face with colleagues we hadn’t seen for a while. We were delighted to meet Catherine Devlin from the Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions in person for the first time in eight years.
We also had valuable discussions with Brian Donne, Amanda Wells and Dion Ventrice in the Adult, Community and Further Education Division of the State government. We heard about some of the issues and exciting programs in Victoria such as the Victorian government’s Reconnect program.
It was also great to catch up in person with David Longley from the Brotherhood of St Laurence and see just how much of our work aligns, especially in areas around digital literacy and apprenticeships.
There is nothing like being in a place to get a sense of what is happening there. Thanks to everyone who hosted us.