A healthy and Happy New Year to all members getting back into the training and assessment efforts for 2019.

The start of the year is also a good opportunity to reflect and plan our ongoing learning and professional development and there are many activities on offer for 2019. No doubt there will be the added effort to complete the TAE upgrade for many people involved directly in the training and assessment of learners, though it is worth looking beyond the compliance activities as to what else you might be able to benefit and grow your own knowledge base.

Personally, the information and opportunity to learn directly from research about VET in our country and internationally through the Australian Vocational Education & Training Research Association (AVETRA) is one that I have enjoyed for many years. As an independent member organisation, there are some interesting insights to be gained from people working in the field. There doesn’t seem to be any details available as yet for the AVETRA Conference as yet and best to keep an eye on the webpage at https://avetra.org.au/

The National Centre for Vocational Education Research provides the sector with outcomes from the data captured by the industry across all vocational training areas and well worth working towards attending. Details have been released for the conference this year in Adelaide.

NCVER ‘No Frills’ Conference on the 10-12 July 2019 in Adelaide (https://www.ncver.edu.au/news-and-events/events/28th-national-vocational-education-and-training-research-conference-no-frills)

‘No Frills’ is a well-known annual national conference where researchers, practitioners, providers and industry representatives come together and share knowledge, ideas, insights and solutions surrounding Australia’s VET sector.

The conference also provides valuable professional development opportunities through a program of hands-on pre-conference workshops incorporating activities on data and research analytics, and research practice.

The 2019 conference program will focus on The student journey: skilling for life.

As members we encourage continuing professional development of members and we are not wanting to prescribe any particular duration or allocate a points model of professional development. Each and every member has different levels of learning needs and are best placed to plan their own learning activities and we encourage and respect this approach as another example of professional practice for the sector.

To support members AVETPA is planning to develop an electronic tool to enable members to capture their own goals and records of learning as part of your own portfolio.

If there is anyone with any specific need to satisfy their own industry needs please advise me so that we can incorporate them.