The Structure of the Program
The program at the VCAL site is set up as a workplace. The program is based on the Victorian Certificate Applied Learning Curriculum, including: Literacy and Numeracy; Work Related Skills, Personal Development Skills and Industry Specific Skills. The young people have workplace agreements and an Occupational Health and Safety Committee. They are required to ring if they will be absent from the program.
To meet the requirements for the Industry Specific Skills strand and the Work Related Skills Strand, a number of students are undertaking different certificates including Certificate II in Retail, Automotive, Childcare, Foundation Work Relations Skills, Food-handling and Occupational Health and Safety. They gain certificates when they complete modules from these competency-based courses.
 Each day two students attend the workshop to do basic mechanical and engineering work. Over one week, ten students attend the program at the workshop. The work undertaken at the workshop contributes to the Industry Specific Skills Strand of the VCAL program. Students work on engineering projects such as fabrication of bull bars and other mechanical work such as repairing trailers, repairing engines and 'doing up cars'.
The placement at the workshop is negotiated with the program coordinator, the workshop coordinator and the student. The behaviour rules are stricter at the workshop. Because of safety requirements students must be able to behave appropriately in the workshop.
Other students are following interest areas including song writing, photography and sound technology. All curriculum areas are as practically based and integrated as possible, as many of the students have difficulties with literacy and numeracy. Examples are Maths based on football statistics and literacy skills involved in developing an Occupational Health and Safety evacuation plan.
A typical day at the program would include a morning with numeracy or literacy work, the work may be undertaken using numeracy or literacy modules designed for self paced work or it may be part of a larger community project that has been developed to incorporate a number of the strands. Further work includes: Personal Development, Work Related Skills or art. Students at different times are out on work placements, undertaking part time work or attending the workshop for Industry Specific skills.
Staffing
The program has:
- Two full time staff, the Coordinator of the program and the Coordinator of the workshop;
- A teacher from the Secondary School for the equivalent of one day a week teaching Maths;
- A teacher for the equivalent of two days a week teaching the Personal Development Strand and other teaching areas;
- A former teacher and Job Pathways worker who is the equivalent of one day a week teaching work related skills and literacy and
- A teacher aide for five mornings a week.
Staff from Centrelink visit regularly and Workways - who are part of Jobs Pathways Program - visit one morning a week. In 2004, counselling support was provided by the School Focused Youth Service
The Workshop
The students can choose to undertake training at the workshop as part of their VCAL program. The coordinator of the workshop, an experienced mechanic, has worked with young people in a variety of settings prior to coming to the VCAL program. As with all of the VCAL program the workshop is not just about getting the task done but it is also about developing work ready attitudes and skills.
The workshop has been established to undertake basic fabrication and engineering projects as well as the repair and restoration of motor vehicles and farm equipment. Whilst the original idea was to concentrate on metal fabrication, the inclusion of basic mechanical work has broadened the appeal of participation to young people from what is a rural area and established a regular income stream. The participants have worked on a variety of mechanical repair jobs: cars, tractors, trucks, small engines and trailers. Agricultural machinery has been repaired, and small fabrication jobs have been undertaken.
Work placements and developing employability skills
VCAL aims to develop knowledge and employability skills that help prepare students for work and participation in a broader society. Participating in work placements is an important part of this process. As these are some of the most marginalised young people in the community the opportunity to do a work placement offers the chance to build employment networks they have never previously had.
Students complete a three-week work placement with a local industry. Local industries, including the timber mill, the truck centre, the animal shelter, the library, motor trimmers, photography shops and road constructors, have offered work placement for the young people to support the program.
One of the young Indigenous men has been offered an apprenticeship in welding as a result of the course and doing work placement. There are very few if any other Indigenous young people undertaking apprenticeships in the Bairnsdale area.
One young man had very low self esteem and confidence prior to his work placement. He had been expelled from the local Secondary College and spent the rest of the year either living with his parents or in foster care. He had been in trouble with the police and was banned from coming into the main shopping areas. He went to Centrelink to go on the dole but they suggested he come to Changing Lanes because he needed to be in education for 20 hours per week to receive his Youth Allowance. He had some friends going to Changing Lanes so he thought he would give it a go.
He recently completed a work placement at the local hardware store. The employers were so pleased with his work that they rated him as having 'outstanding application for the role' in his work placement report. They are now employing him one day a week and the VCAL coordinator is investigating turning the one day into two days' work and then into a School Based New Apprenticeship in retail.
He has now found something that he enjoys doing and is very interested in completing a Certificate II in Retail. He is now aware that he would like to be in the workforce. He feels that it is important to be occupied and to socialise and he finds work has given him the opportunity to do this. |
| In 2004 the Local Learning and Employment Network had a young woman completing Certificate 2 in Business Administration for one day a week at the organisation. The young woman has completed her Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) at Changing Lanes and is still employed casually at the Local Learning and Employment Network. This young woman had been out of school for two years prior to returning to do her Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) at Changing Lanes. She had previously failed Year 12 twice at the Secondary College. |
For the young people it was important to learn the skills, attitude and presentation that are needed to apply for and get a job in the community:
"We learn lots of work related skills, occupational health and safety, how to present ourselves at work, and health and hygiene."
Students in the program had developed a strong community and program identity the. Many felt strongly about the behaviour of some students both in the program and when they were out in the community on work placement. One student responded that she was
"worried when someone was an idiot because it made the rest of them look bad and reflected badly on all of them."
Management of the program
The principles of applied learning - in particular, those that are based on the need to acknowledge the skills that students bring to the program and the place of context in student learning - have been reflected in the management of the program.
A management group consisting of the Coordinator and five students has been established. The students are elected through a secret ballot and there is preferential voting. At the beginning of 2005, the group met on a weekly basis to discuss what was and was not working in the program, as well as issues of behaviour management. At a meeting last year the group made a decision to sack four students from the program but later reinstated two of these students. Decisions are made in accordance with a negotiated workplace agreement that includes attendance, work expectations and respect for property. This group has been less active as the year progressed and decision-making has been on a more informal basis with discussions being held when needed with particular groups of students.
Community partnerships
 Recently a partnership has been developed with Bairnsdale Adult Community Education to offer a themed Victorian Certificate Applied Learning in Civil Construction to provide young people with an opportunity to work on the roads. At this stage the Coordinator is still matching students to this course. It is important to match the students carefully to the available options. This particular certificate would not suit all of the participants.
Other local businesses offer food to the program. As in many alternative programs the provision of food is an essential part of keeping the young people at the program throughout the day. Food handling and cooking are also included in the program.
Centrelink runs a kerbside service at the program. This is more user-friendly than having to go into the office in town and ensures that young people retain their Youth Allowance. The program has a policy of only five unexplained absences, as this is the figure that triggers stopping of the Youth Allowance by Centrelink. It has also been agreed that Centrelink will send a letter to program participants within days if they do not attend in regard to reviewing their payments. This has been very effective in reducing absences.
As the program is working with the most marginalised young people in the community there will be times when life circumstances impact on their ability and motivation to attend the program. In some situations the contact with Centrelink can be the reminder that they need. It is though, the continued support that they receive when they attend the program and the employment and training opportunities that the program offers that was consistently emphasised by both the staff and the students that encourages the young people to stay in the program even when their life circumstances become difficult.
As one of the young people responded:
So many of the young people have got jobs while they have been here. That makes us want to stay.
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