UNE will partner with not-for-profit social enterprise Creating Chances to pilot its work readiness model for senior high school students courtesy of a $410,000 Office for Regional Youth grant announced by Member for Northern Tablelands Adam Marshall.
In partnership with UNE, the Creating Chances Growing Great Teachers strategy will be trialled among Year 10-11 students in 13 schools across Armidale, Tamworth, Glen Innes, Guyra and Uralla over the next two years. It aims to foster a new generation of teachers, school learning support officers, community liaison officers and Aboriginal Education officers.
“The 18-month program is designed to develop transferable leadership, teaching/coaching, planning and communication skills, as well as all-important aspirations to seek out university pathways to become teachers,” said Dr Kristy O’Neill, from UNE’s School of Education. “Alongside school-based workshops, the program will involve experiential learning days on-campus at UNE and opportunities for students to work with partner primary schools to do small-group teaching in literacy, numeracy and sports-based activities.”
The Office for Regional Youth’s ‘Our Region, Our Voice’ Regional Youth Investment Program is dedicated to improving the lives and wellbeing of young people in regional areas. Known as the Work Ready Employment Pathways For Schools project, this new initiative follows a successful UNE and Creating Chances trial of a similar program with Year 9-10 students at Armidale Secondary College late last year.
“As part of our Work Ready program, we have the opportunity to engage with the Growing Great Teachers strategy that Creating Chances developed in collaboration with the NSW Department of Education. This will benefit New England youth and create practical solutions to the critical teacher shortage,” Dr O’Neill said.
More than 300 students and about 30 teachers will be involved following the program’s launch in Term 3, 2023. Dr O’Neill and Professor Pep Baker will conduct research and evaluation of the project, with the aim of providing a best-practice model to address critical teacher shortages across NSW and beyond.
“There is strong potential for this model to be rolled out more widely, especially in regional areas,” said Professor Pep Baker. “The teaching profession has recently received negative media attention due to increased workloads and attitudes towards teachers. There is also the perception that if you have attended school, you know everything about being a teacher. This program provides an avenue for secondary students to experience aspects of becoming a teacher and, once again, recognises the critical and essential role that teachers play in our society.”
Creating Chances General Manager Brad McCarroll said his staff have a strong track record of facilitating evidence-based youth development programs in NSW.
“We greatly value this two-year partnership with UNE,” he said. “It enables us to expand the Growing Great Teachers program and to test it in a regional setting, where teacher shortages are more stark and we stand to have a greater impact on school communities.”
