REGIONAL EDUCATION, SKILLS AND JOBS PLAN
New South Wales – Northern Inland
2012 – 2014
JULY 2013
This plan was first published in July 2012. This is the July 2013 edition.
Details in this report are correct at time of drafting.
This report can be found at the Regional Education, Skills and Jobs webpage (www.deewr.gov.au/resj) or the MyRegion website (www.myregion.gov.au).
For more information about this plan, please contact:
The Office of Regional Education, Skills and Jobs
GPO Box 9880
Canberra ACT 2601
Email:
ISBN:
978-0-642-78625-8 [PDF]
978-0-642-78626-5 [DOCX]
With the exception of the Commonwealth Coat of Arms and where otherwise noted all material presented in this document is provided under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/).
The details of the relevant licence conditions (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/legalcode) are available on the Creative Commons website (accessible using the links provided) as is the full legal code for the CCBY 3.0 AU licence.
The document must be attributed as the Regional Education, Skills and Jobs Plan 2012-14 Northern Inland.
Disclaimer about data used in this plan
Data used in the development of this plan comes from a variety of sources and was correct at time of drafting. This document should not be used as a data source as data referred to may have been updated or reformulated since the publication of the plan. Refer to primary sources for confirmation of data.
Contents
Regional Education, Skills and Jobs Plans 4
Strategies 4
Community engagement 4
Implementation 4
Executive summary 5
Characteristics of the region 7
Population 7
Early childhood education and care 8
School education 9
Primary 9
Secondary 9
Tertiary education and training 11
Jobs, skills and workforce development 12
Other characteristics 15
Murray–Darling Basin plan 15
National Broadband Network 15
Clean energy 15
Issues, goals and strategies 16
Issue 1 The provision of and access to early childhood/child care services and the promotion of networked communications and support. 17
Issue 2 Closing the Gap in all areas for Indigenous Australians. 18
Issue 3 Effective education and training strategies, programs and work experience opportunities for all students, including those disengaged. 19
Issue 4 The promotion of regionally specific careers advice, guidance and pathways. 22
Issue 5 Difficulties identifying and measuring regional skills needs and shortages, combined with a need to capitalise on opportunities in the emerging industries while addressing industries in apparent decline. 23
Appendices 25
Appendix A — Stakeholders 25
Appendix B — Existing related plans and strategies 26
Abbreviations 28
Regional Education, Skills and Jobs Plans
The Australian Government announced the Regional Education, Skills and Jobs Plans initiative in the 2011–12 Budget, as part of the Building Australia’s Future Workforce package. The initiative addresses four key areas of the Australian Government’s productivity and social inclusion agendas: early childhood education and care; Year 12 attainment; participation in vocational and higher education; and local job opportunities.
The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) has deployed 34 Regional Education, Skills and Jobs (RESJ) Coordinators to work with local stakeholders to develop Regional Education, Skills and Jobs Plans for the 46 Regional Development Australia (RDA) areas that cover non-metropolitan Australia.
The plans present locally identified opportunities and challenges and outline local strategies to improve education, skills and jobs outcomes in regional Australia.
For more information, including the contact details of your local RESJ Coordinator, please refer to the Regional Education, Skills and Jobs webpage at www.deewr.gov.au/resj.
Strategies
Each plan reflects community priorities and includes goals and local strategies to achieve the community’s objectives, based on four key themes: early childhood education and care; school education; tertiary education and training; and jobs, skills and workforce development.
The plans build on the range of services and programs already offered by DEEWR and the strategies draw on the programs of other government agencies and the opportunities arising from major local projects.
Community engagement
The plans were developed by RESJ Coordinators with close community engagement and include views from young people, parents, employers, educators, service providers, peak bodies, community leaders, government organisations and agencies, and other interested individuals and organisations. The plans draw strongly upon existing strategic plans in each region, including the local RDA regional plan.
DEEWR acknowledges the traditional owners of the Northern Inland RDA region and their elders past and present recognising their continuing connection to country. This plan strives to build and harness mutually respectful relationships and reflect community priorities in education, skills and jobs development for the region.
Implementation
The RESJ Coordinator, on behalf of DEEWR, will oversee the implementation of the strategies and promote and coordinate linkages between the government agencies, providers and stakeholders involved in this plan’s implementation.
Progress towards achieving the goals within each plan will be closely monitored, while stakeholders will be kept informed through participation in plan strategies.
This edition incorporates strategies that respond to changes in local circumstances identified through continuing community input or changing government priorities in regional Australia as well as access to new data. The plans continue to be living and responsive documents that will be revisited throughout their implementation to June 2014.
Executive summary
The Northern Inland RDA region of New South Wales is covered by 13 Local Government Areas (LGAs): Armidale Dumaresq Council, Glen Innes Severn Council, Gunnedah Shire Council, Guyra Council, Gwydir Shire Council, Inverell Council, Liverpool Plains Shire Council, Moree Plains Shire Council, Narrabri Shire Council, Tamworth Regional Council, Tenterfield Council, Uralla Council and Walcha Council.
The Northern Inland is often considered to have three reasonably distinct areas with differing priorities and opportunities. To the north-east, the higher country of New England involves beef and wool production and the educational centre of Armidale. To the south of the region is the Tamworth district, which has mixed farming and is a commercial, processing and administrative centre for many organisations. The third area is the intensively farmed black soil plains area leading up to the north-west, which relies heavily on agriculture but is entering a surge in resource exploration and extraction There are also opportunities in viticulture, aviation, tourism and alternative energies across the region.
The Northern Inland region overlays the traditional lands of a number of Indigenous nations, including the Kamilaroi, Ngarabal, Nganyaywana, and Gumbaynggirr.
A comprehensive environmental scan and community consultation have been carried out to identify the key education, skills and jobs challenges for the region. The challenges include:
· the provision of and access to early childhood / child care services and the promotion of networked communications and support
· identifying and delivering effective education and training strategies, programs and work experience opportunities for all students, including those disengaged
· the promotion of regionally specific careers advice, guidance and pathways
· difficulties identifying and measuring regional skills needs and shortages, combined with a need to capitalise on opportunities in the emerging industries while addressing industries in apparent decline
· Closing the Gap in all areas for Indigenous Australians.
The key goals of this RESJ Plan are to:
· develop a cohesive region-wide focus on the provision of early childhood and child care services under the National Quality Framework (NQF) and move towards a strong network of communication and support throughout the region
· promote and support an effective range of programs across the early stages of student development
· ensure a broad range of opportunities are made available to all secondary students across the region, including existing programs to raise retention and Year 12 or equivalent attainment levels
· ensure the provision of unique and effective alternatives to mainstream education leading to attainment of recognised qualifications
· ensure a regional awareness of tertiary opportunities, increase the uptake of courses, and conduct continuous review of course relevance to regional needs
· raise students’ and parents’ awareness and knowledge of the full range of regionally specific careers, training and further education opportunities and pathways within the Northern Inland region
· use partnerships to identify present and future regional workforce needs and shortages, leading to the development of skills and employment strategies and projects
· maximise opportunities through emerging industries, whilst supporting those upon which the region has been founded
· improve access and participation for Indigenous Australians across all levels of education, skills development and employment within the region.
The Northern Inland region has an RDA Committee with a broad plan that includes opportunities for education, skills and employment. A portion of the Northern Inland RDA region (Glen Innes and Tenterfield) is part of the Richmond-Tweed and Clarence Valley priority employment area and has a Local Employment Coordinator (LEC) in place. The Northern Inland RESJ Plan complements the existing goals and strategies in the Northern Inland RDA Plan and the LEC’s Regional Employment Plan.
Some outcomes achieved by the RESJ Coordinator working with local stakeholders include:
· Continued involvement in the Gunnedah Aboriginal Child and Family Centre through the Local Reference Group, including coordinating a meeting between the construction company for the Centre and Gunnedah Indigenous organisations and Job Services Australia (JSA) providers to meet the target of 20 per cent Indigenous workforce participation during the Centre’s construction and operation phase. The Centre is expected to be officially opened mid-2013 and will provide services for up to 35 children per day, through nine Indigenous early childhood education and care workers and four family support workers. The Centre will also be used as a hub for a range of community services in the region.
· The planning, undertaking, and analysis of a regional youth survey that revealed unique insights into the educational and employment perspectives of some 600 students from Years 10, 11, 12. The findings from this survey have been shared with a range of partners across the region to inform the delivery of youth services.
· The development of a local working party leading to development and implementation of a youth employment project in the Glen Innes and Tenterfield areas targeting up to 40 participants. This project has resulted in 24 participants undertaking three separate training courses including a Certificate II in Engineering, Metals and a ‘careers start’ skill set.
· The coordination and conduct of an Early Childhood Education Industry roundtable event in June2012 that saw 36 service providers, training organisations and other partners participate in discussions of the key issues affecting the sector in the region.
· Partnered in the development of the Trelawney Girls Program with the NSW Department of Education and Communities and Backtrack Youth Workers which will provide 20Aboriginal female students in Years 9-11 and at risk of disengaging from mainstream education, with a 12month training program. This program includes non-accredited self-empowerment and social skills and an accredited training package using skills sets from the Certificate ll Skills for Work and Training. The project commenced in Term 2, 2013 for completion at the end of Term 1, 2014.
Characteristics of the region
This section sets out the characteristics of the region identified through a comprehensive environmental scan and local consultations. The information detailed in this section is not exhaustive of the characteristics of the region, but provides an overview and insight to some of the challenges facing the region.
To guide the RESJ Coordinator’s identification of issues and engagement with the community, various data sets have supported the development of this plan. Data used in the development of this plan was sourced from DEEWR, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and other relevant sources. Data referred to may have been reformulated and was correct at time of drafting. Different data sets are refreshed at different intervals, for example, unemployment rates are updated monthly for national and state/territory figures and quarterly for regions.
Population
The 2011 Census suggests that between 2006 and 2011 the population for the Northern Inland RDA region grew by approximately 3000 people with an estimated population now over 183,000. However, this growth rate is not present in all LGAs, with more sparsely populated areas experiencing declines which the Northern Inland RDA Regional Plan 2011-2015 links with the decline of agricultural industries. The regional age groups have also fluctuated over the decade between 2001 and 2011 where the 15-64 age bracket has decreased more than 1 per cent, and the 65 years and over bracket has increased by 3per cent. In real terms this sees the pool of working age residents continue to shrink in number and may indicate extra requirements to be provided to our retired residents.
Table 1: Northern Inland RDA population by LGA
Local Government Area / 2001 / 2006 / 2011 /Armidale Dumaresq / 24,807 / 24,607 / 25,270
Glen Innes Severn / 8889 / 9159 / 8965
Gunnedah / 12,405 / 12,007 / 12,515
Guyra / 4475 / 4416 / 4543
Gwydir / 5760 / 5532 / 5074
Inverell / 15,754 / 16,148 / 16,614
Liverpool Plains / 8041 / 7865 / 7769
Moree Plains / 16,233 / 14,682 / 14,189
Narrabri Shire / 14,537 / 13,734 / 13,475
Tamworth Regional / 53,973 / 55,936 / 583,51
Tenterfield / 6897 / 6793 / 7024
Uralla / 6099 / 6007 / 6260
Walcha / 3307 / 3321 / 3122
Northern Inland / 181,177 / 180,207 / 183,171
Source: 2011 Census - Estimated Resident Population, Local Government Areas, New South Wales
2011 Census data also indicates that the Northern Inland has a much higher ratio of Indigenous residents than the Australian average. At the time of the 2011 Census there were approximately 15,765 Indigenous Australians in the region, or 9 per cent, above both the New South Wales (2.5%) and Australian (2.5%) rates. The LGAs with the highest Indigenous populations within the region were; Tamworth, Moree, Armidale, Narrabri, and Gunnedah.).
Aboriginal Affairs of the New South Wales Office of Communities projects by 2021 there will be an increase of 21 per cent in the Northern Inland RDA region Indigenous population, which equates to an additional 3500 people. This will correlate with a need for more education, training and employment opportunities for Indigenous communities across this region.
The 2011 Census data for New South Wales as a whole indicated that 25.7 per cent of the state’s population had been born overseas while up to 6 per cent of the Northern Inland RDA population may have been born overseas. Most of these people came from north-western Europe with the next largest group of migrants coming from the Oceania region. Planning and workplace support, such as the Workplace English Language and Literacy program (WELL), are likely to enhance the successful integration of skilled migrants into the Northern Inland RDA workforce.