Early in June I attended the annual EduTECH conference in Sydney where I presented with my brilliant colleague Renee Costa. We showcased our award-winning project that focused on re-thinking the way we educate the next generation of workers within aged care.

The project looked at putting students in the workplace and learning within the flow of normal work activities as they completed a Certificate III in Individual Support. This included:

• personalised, flexible, student-led learning experiences
• students placed in a work environment for all their studies
• intensive face-to-face training by an RMIT teacher delivered in the workplace
• an RMIT teacher on-site in the workplace
• guidance and support for workplace supervisors who were assisting students
• micro-credentials to recognise enterprise skills identified by industry
• digital content to guide and support students in their learning.

You can see the slides from this presentation below.

Future proofing the next generation of workers PP_EMcKenzie

Only two presentations after us, we heard from Charles Jennings who was a co-founder of the 70:20:10 model. This model underpinned much of our thinking in designing our individual support project. Charles’ presentation highlighted the importance of integrating learning into the work flow. The model is underpinned by the premise that:

• 70 per cent of learning comes from experience
• 20 per cent from working with others
• 10 per cent from formal education solutions.

As Jennings highlighted in his presentation, the numbers are not an exact formula and should be taken as a reference model. The video below explains further.

EduTECH was a hive of activity, with numerous presentation stages and a large exhibition area at its heart. The exhibition environment hosted a variety of software solutions, environmental solutions and of course, STEAM products galore.

There were many fabulous presentations and calls for change, notably Sir Ken Robinson and his desire for us to be the change in the education system. Other presentations advocating change looked to the need to introduce more play and of course, a variety of technological solutions and innovations. Professor Marcia Devlin from Victoria University and her insight into the new block model they’ve recently implemented was another standout, and I look forward to seeing how this innovative transformation in program architecture progresses.

It would be remiss of me to not mention the presentation by Dr Richard Harris. Although not necessarily focused on education, his story certainly highlighted how ordinary individuals can be heroes and make amazingly difficult decisions when confronted with impossible circumstances. I could not help but think that the decisions I make daily, pale when compared to the decision he had to make when rescuing those boys from the Thai cave. If you are not familiar with his story, please take time to read this recap.

Once again, another great experience and I look forward to next year.