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The Minister for Education, Julia Gillard, today hosted a welcome home reception for the 2009 Team Australia Skillaroos. The Skillaroos are a team of 26 young apprentices, trainees and vocational students who have recently returned from the 40th WorldSkills International Competition in Calgary, Canada. The WorldSkills competition represents 51 member countries and regions worldwide and was established in 1950, with Australia competing in every competition since 1988. This year, the team won 12 medals in ten categories, maintaining Australia's ranking of fifth in the world in this competition.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions, the Australian Industry Group, and the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry today called on Training Ministers in all States and Territories to proceed, as a priority, with the establishment of a national regulator for the Australian Vocational Education and Training (VET) system as agreed at the April 2009 COAG meeting.

Academy and Polytechnic Campuses in Tasmania will benefit from the Commonwealth's Digital Education Revolution with the provision of a further new 1,000 new PCs/laptops or net-books over the life of the program.

The national training system's e-learning strategy, the Australian Flexible Learning Framework has developed a suite of five brochures, each designed to answer the detailed questions from specific user groups within the vocational education and training (VET) system: learners, teachers and trainers, CEOs and managers, IT and teaching and learning support staff, and employer, professional bodies, and career services.

Vocational education and training (VET) programs, innovation and sustainability are the key themes at this year's TAFE in Rural and Isolated Communities conference. The biennial conference will explore recent announcements by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG), including the Compact with Young Australians and the joint Commonwealth and State Productivity Places Program for existing workers and job seekers.

The Federal Government has announced the recipients of a $96 million investment across 150 projects to improve teaching and learning in the community education and training sector. The funding will help support training and jobs by providing up to $1.5 million per project for community education organisations to build new training infrastructure and upgrade their existing facilities. The new and upgraded infrastructure will support and improve training in employability, literacy and numeracy skills and help 'second chance' learners to get work or further training.

The Australian Flexible Learning Framework's flexiblelearning.net.au e-learning hub allows practitioners and providers working in e-learning to connect with colleagues around Australia and internationally. It is interactive and user driven, featuring web 2.0 technologies which encourages the sharing of knowledge, experience and learning resources. In this session Kim Edgar, Manager for VET Projects at education.au provides a tour of the new site and demonstrates how to join groups, connect with colleagues and collaborate online.

Many sectors of Service Skills Australia's service industries depend heavily on volunteer/ unpaid labour in management, development and support roles. Key issues are: attracting, recruiting and retaining volunteers; barriers to volunteering (eg. governance and regulatory requirements); support and resource delivery to volunteers; education and training for volunteers; and skills recognition for present and future learning pathways. A consultation paper has been prepared; and a survey is available based on questions raised in the paper.

Manufacturing Skills Australia (MSA) is looking for people to provide feedback on the Continuous Improvement Plan of the Automotive Retail Service and Repair Training Package (AUR05) by joining the Automotive Manufacturing Project Reference Group. The Continuous Improvement Plan will include: undertaking an initial scan of AUR05; a research and analysis of existing documentation and other records held by MSA regarding requests for improvements and changes as well as uptake and use of AUR05; identification of issues to be addressed, including compliance matters; preparation of industry and other stakeholder consultation briefs, questionnaires and consultation schedules; stakeholder consultations; analysis of feedback and all other information; and preparation of a final report with recommendations for future continuous improvement actions.