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August 2023
Dear Colleagues, This month we focus on Adult Learners Week - 1-8 September with a launch by Adult Learning Australia on 4 September. Wyndham and Melton have learning festivals and some events are online. ALCN is also planning several exciting events, based on feedback from our members: 1) 22 September 2023 3-4 pm AEST Friday Forum - Lifelong Learning for Life and Work. This forum features George Osborne, Manager Economic Development, Hume City Council and Marne Maren Klein, Research Fellow, EU Centre of Excellence, RMIT University. Register here. 2) 4 October - 3-4.30 pm (AEDT) joint ALA/ALCN Webinar on Stories from UNESCO Learning Cities - Building Inclusive and Sustainable Learning Partnerships. We feature projects from UNESCO Learning Cities Wyndham and Canning in Australia and Phayao Learning City in Thailand, with Mr Raúl Valdés-Cotera, UNESCO UIL, as the opening speaker. Registration details coming. 3) Friday 27 October - 9.30 am - 10.30 am (AEDT) Friday Forum. Reflecting on Community Engagement Experiences led by Danielle Marie, Learning and Partnerships Coordinator, Brimbank City Council. Also featured are new Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) kits from Tamworth Learning Region; information about the UNESCO UIL Inclusive Lifelong Learning Conference which took place in Bali on 6-7 July, and information from PASCAL International Observatory about the next international conference (4-6 July, 2024) in Taipei. Enjoy reading and please send me more of your incredible stories of hope to share with others. With my best wishes. Leone
Dr Leone Wheeler
Hon. CEO
Australian Learning Communities Network
Website: https://alcn.com.au/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aus.alcn
+61 (0) 456 038 236 Email: [email protected]____________________________________________________
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 Launch of Adult Learners Week - Monday 4 September
12.30 - 2.30 pm AEST
ALA invites you to join the launch, online or in person, of Adult Learners Week 2023 which celebrates adults who have turned their lives around through adult education. Hear inspirational stories and conversations about adult learning from their guests and ambassadors. The MC is Brian Nankervis —comedian, co-creator of ‘RocKwiz’ and ABC Radio Melbourne host. Other inspirational speakers include accomplished musician Karise Eden and best-selling author Jackie French AM, and ALW2023 ambassadors Deanie De Boer, Sunil Abbott, and James M.
Online: Free live-stream of the event for those who would like to attend online
In-person: Footscray Community Arts, Performance Space, 45 Moreland Street, Footscray (in-person places limited)
Cost: FREE event
Click here to register.
Download the launch program.
More information about Adult Learners Week - 1 8 September. _________________________________________
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Wyndham Learning Festival 1-7 September 2023
 The 2023 Wyndham Learning Festival (WLF), has over 70+ FREE events in this year’s curated program, these events are sure to inspire the Wyndham community to get out and try something new. With the theme of “Our Thriving, Creative Wyndham”, the FREE festival offers something for all ages and interests from 1-7 September and aims to celebrate and encourage lifelong learning with a range of activities from across the Arts, Sports & Recreation, The World of Work and Tech, Environment & Sustainability, Wellbeing & Self-Care, History, Culture & Diversity, Food & Cooking, and Families & Children. Whether its Vietnamese Cooking, a ChatGTP workshop, Financial Wellness, Drumming, Indian Dance, Job Seeking skills, Fitness classes or learning CPR – the WLF has all these events and more! Launching the Wyndham Learning Festival will be our signature ‘WynTalk’ on Friday 1 September at the Wyndham Cultural Centre. Celebrate the Magic of Storytelling with Mem Fox will feature acclaimed author and educationalist Mem Fox reflecting on her career and celebrating 40 years of Possum Magic, as the audience discovers the magic of literature, learning and creativity. An exciting evening is promised with the launch of the Festival including the new Wyndham Learning Festival showbag, music from local school performers, a celebration of Festival Sponsors Victoria University and Pacific Werribee Shopping Centre, and some lite refreshments. For a full list of Wyndham Learning Festival events visit https://www.wynlearnfestival.org.au/ The Learning Festival is led by Wyndham Community & Education Centre and supported by Wyndham City.
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Melton Learning Festival
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The 2023 Melton Learning Festival will be launched at Melton Library on Saturday 2 September at 10.00 am. This year, aligned with Adult Learners Week, we are celebrating curiosity. There are events for all ages and abilities, all free. Join us for a day of fun learning on Saturday, with music, games, competitions, and more. The full program can be found here:
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Friday Forum - Lifelong Learning for Life and Work
22 September 2023 3-4 pm AEST
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ALCN is very excited to partner with Wyndham City Council, Melton City Council, Hume City Council, and the European Centre of RMIT University to bring a forum on an important topic that our learning cities and communities are grappling with.
Presentations:
1. Advantages of extending the Learning City Approach into other areas of Local Government and beyond
George Osborne, Manager Economic Development, Hume City Council, will share examples of adapting a collaborative learning city approach to other areas of government, with a focus on Economic Development.
2. Learning and/or earning: Tensions between learning for the economic sphere (jobs) and learning for well-being/democracy
Maren Klein, Research Fellow, EU Centre of Excellence, RMIT will discuss the tensions between learning for the economic sphere (jobs) and learning for well-being/democracy. Maren will refer to the following paper:
Participants are encouraged to ask questions after each presentation, sharing ideas from their own practice.
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Dates for your Diary
ALCN and partners are coordinating a number of Webinars and our national and international partners are welcome to attend. Details: 1) 4 October - 3-4.30 pm (AEDT) joint ALA/ALCN Webinar on Stories from UNESCO Learning Cities - Building Inclusive and Sustainable Learning Partnerships. The aim of the webinar is to showcase practical examples from UNESCO Learning Cities – Canning and Wyndham in Australia, and Phayao Learning City in Thailand that illustrate how they address actions and implement programs through partnerships that are inclusive, sustainable, and make significant contributions to the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) at the local level. Mr Raúl Valdés-Cotera, Team Leader at the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning in Hamburg, Germany, and coordinator of the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities is the opening speaker. 2) Friday 27 October - 9.30 am - 10.30 am (AEDT) Friday Forum. Reflecting on Community Engagement Experiences led by Danielle Marie, Learning and Partnerships Coordinator, Brimbank City Council. Danielle and other practitioners will reflect on what they have learned from the consultation process to inform the next learning community strategy. 3) Friday 8 December 3-4 pm (AEDT). Friday Forum. New ALCN member Joanne Lockwood, Coordinator Ballarat Library and Learning, will introduce us to the learning community of the City of Ballarat. Details of how to register for these events will be posted shortly. In the meantime email Sharyn Wheatcoft, Wyndham City Council ( [email protected]) if you are interested in attending these events. .______________________________
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UNESCO Institute of Lifelong Learning
The July edition of the UNESCO UIL newsletter features highlights from the Inclusive Lifelong Learning Conference, which took place in Bali from 3 to 6 July and provided a platform for high-level discussions on developing inclusive learning ecosystems across the globe. Read more about the conference from the UNESCO UIL newsletter. On 5 July of the Bali conference Ms Lisa Chesters, MP, Chair of the Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Training, spoke of the nature of Lifelong Learning provision in Australia. Afterward, Jose Roberto ‘Robbie’ Guevara, Associate Professor of International Development, at RMIT University and President of the International Council of Adult Education (ICAE), highlighted the good practice work of our ALCN learning cities - Canning, Tamworth, and Wyndham. The presentations of Ms. Chesters and Assoc. Professor Robbie Guevara are available here..______________________________
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PASCAL International Observatory Conference Announcement July 2024
The 17th PASCAL Conference will take place on from 4-6 July 2024. It will be hosted by the University of Taipei, Taiwan University of Education and Datong Community College of Taipei City. The venue will be the Howard Civil Service International House in Taipei. The theme is New Challenges for Higher Education, Cities and Regions: Addressing SDGs in Changing Contexts. In the past members of the ALCN have presented at PASCAL conferences. For further information go to the PASCAL website here. ____________________________
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Tamworth Learning Region - new STEM Kits!  Central Northern Regional Library (CNRL) has a collection of 180 STEM Kits for pre-schoolers, teens, and adults to explore the worlds of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics at home. The kits can be borrowed from any CNRL branch much the same as books and DVDs There is a variety of electronics kits, pocket microscopes, augmented reality cubes, robots, music synthesizers, remote control paper planes, and an array of scientific experiments available. Each kit includes instructions and QR Code links to pages on the CNRL website that have workshops created or curated by the Library Innovation Studio to help members get the most out of each kit. Additional workshops and ideas will be added over time. The STEM kits were chosen to suit a wide range of ages, abilities and educational outcomes. They include Coding, Electronics, Physics, Avionics, Music and Augmented Reality. Around half the kits do not require a smart device or computer, and were selected for their ease of generating learning outcomes. For more information about each STEM kit, visit the CNRL STEM kits webpage: https://cnl.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/spydus.exe/MSGTRNGEN/WPAC/STEMKITS
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Powering a Learning Society During an Age of Disruption
 The publishing team sent congratulations to all contributing authors as the book has now had more than 100K downloads from the Springer Website. This is a reflection of the importance of the topic and the “eminence and far-reaching networks of contributing authors”.
A book review by Pradeep Kumar Misra, Professor & Director, Centre for Policy Research in Higher Education, National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, New Delhi, India is very positive saying that while the authors differ in their qualifications, experiences, and professions, they unite on one front: that is, “they all critically discuss the roles and benefits of actively promoting learning societies during a time of all-pervasive change.”
Further, the book makes it clear that the future fate of learning societies will depend on governments and private sectors, but also, most importantly, on us (as individuals), by rightly stating, “nothing about us, without us” (p.81).
Read the review here.
Reference
Sungsup R., Jagannathan, S. and Maclean R., Powering a Learning Society in an Age of Disruption. Education in the Asia Pacific Region: Issues, Concerns and Prospects. Vol. 58. 2021: Springer. Available from at https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-16-0983-1
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Readings/Resources
Source: APO
Houghton, K., A. Barwick, and S. Pregellio, Regional jobs 2022: the big skills challenge, Regional Australia Institute, Editor. 2023. Available from https://apo.org.au/node/322797
Regional job advertisements grew three times faster than in metropolitan Australia at the end of 2022, according to this report which analyses regional job vacancy data from both 2022 and from the last decade to present a view of the labour market challenges and opportunities in regional Australia.
The report identifies the top four most in-demand online advertised roles across regional Australia for December.
These include:
- Medical Practitioners and Nurses – 6,166
- General Inquiry Clerks, Call Centre Workers and Receptionists – 5,941
- Carers and Aides – 5,416
- Sales Assistants and Salespersons – 4,527
The report outlines seven policy considerations including planning for growth, housing for liveability, investing in education and training, incentivizing regional employment...
'No Frills' Conference Discussion Paper
Trimboli, D., Skilling Australia’s current and future workforce, in 2023 'No Frills' Discussion Paper. 2023, NCVER: Adelaide. Available from https://www.ncver.edu.au/research-and-statistics/publications/all-public....
This discussion paper explores the resilience of the Australian VET sector and how it can continue to foster adaptability in the face of ongoing change.
World Bank Resource
World Bank, How to accelerate student learning. Lessons from 60 countries, YouTube Resource. View at https://live.worldbank.org/events/accelerate-student-learning-3-years-af...
A video and report - Learning Recovery to Acceleration. A global update on country efforts examines what countries are doing to recover and accelerate learning, and how they are doing it, studying over 60 education systems. While many countries largely returned to ‘business as usual,’ others jumped into action—implementing comprehensive, multi-year strategies for improving learning and reducing inequalities. What have we learned from these efforts?
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