VECO Online Guest - Bright Futures for Young Australians

Harris van Beek
Chief Executive Officer, Australian Student Traineeship Foundation

Eric Sidoti

For more than 20 years Harris has lead organisations which initiate, develop and support local level partnerships. Through that involvement he has developed a keen awareness of the potential of local level community partnerships, while also understanding the challenges faced by such arrangements. Harris appreciates the importance of appropriate policy environments to enable such programs to be sustainable. Consequently he has actively advised Governments and local communities about such policies and practices.

In 1992 Harris completed Master of Management (Community) studies. Harris was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of the ASTF in February 1996.

Eric Sidoti has sustained a long interest in public policy. For a number of years he was involved in policy and advocacy work for a number of community organisations including the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace. He went freelance in 1992.

Since that time he has continued to pursue these interests maintaining extended relationships with a small number of organisations, including the ASTF and the Dusseldorp Skills Forum.

Eric was actively involved in the deliberations and activities which resulted in the establishment of the ASTF. He provided writing and research support in the development of Bright Futures.

During 1999, the Minister for Education, Training & Youth Affairs, Dr David Kemp, asked the ASTF to prepare advice for the Commonwealth Government on how young people can be equipped to successfully make the transition from school to work.

The result, a report entitled Bright Futures for Young Australians, has already been presented to the Minister and has "Green Paper" status which means that wide ranging consultation will take place. This online guest event is one aspect of this consultation.

You are warmly invited to actively participate in this event which is a unique opportunity to have your say and interact with Harris and Eric.

To participate fully in this event you need to have read the Bright Futures for Young Australians document summary. It is as an indexed PDF file that can be read online or downloaded.

article about Bright Futures. Read!
download/open Bright Futures summary report - PDF file
Visit the ASTF website for the full report or to order a printed copy. Go!

NOTE:If you are already a member of the voced-coord email list, you will be automatically subscribed to the bright-futures list on April 29.