Making WAVEs…
SNAPSHOT | Robyn Woolley, Women’s Strategy Officer, TAFE NSW Northern Sydney Institute
WAVE – the national network for Women in Adult and Vocational Education has received a Women and Leadership Grant from the Federal Office for Women for Managing the Maze – a 2006 project for regional NSW and WA. The project objectives are to:
- promote a leadership training program with indigenous women
- further equip them to deal with the maze of educational, employment, community and support services available, and
- promote beneficial leadership decisions for themselves and their communities.
WAVE also in 2005 carried out a Security4Women project in Alice Springs – Helping People to Help Themselves, looking at the relevance of VET to indigenous women and girls in remote communities. This project was one of five Women in VET snapshots around Australia, and two more reports have been released:
- Getting Real: Young Women and Girls, Working Futures, VET and VET in Schools looks at the connections girls in schools are making with the world of work while they are undertaking VET school or TAFE study.
- The Way Forward, the Importance of VET to Australian Women in Poverty, a small study conducted with the assistance of the Smith Family, reviews the expectations of and connections with VET as a means to assist women move out of poverty. Two further reports will be released in 2006. One on VET and Women in Small Business, and one on women returning to VET to re-train. All publications will be sourced from WAVE’s website (see link below).
WAVE also holds a key role on the Client and Student Voice Action Group – the National Committee reviewing the advisory arrangement for equity in the national training system. It is hoped that this input will assist the ministerially endorsed document Women: Shaping Our Future 2004 – 2010 to move on to implementation.
The recent research conducted by WAVE has been both significant and timely in its reinforcement of the need to firm up policy support for women in the VET system.
See also
Converse (the name of the WAVE Journal) for more information and membership details
