Guest posting to voced-coord email list. Item 2 of 9:

Date: Tue, 31 Mar 1998 16:23:14 +1100
To: voced-coord@owl.qut.edu.au
From: Richard_Laidlaw@astf.com.au
Subject: Does the Loch Ness Monster Really Exist

Thanks for the introduction Merran, but adding the name "Medici" implies that you thought our shopping expenditure in Florence could have bought the Pitti Palace, and you said you wouldn't blab....

The Churchill Fellowship was a wonderful experience, a chance to talk with like minded individuals in foreign languages, to visit some varied and interesting programs and to be a part of some exciting developments in the rapidly evolving European Union.

As to whether there is a Doctor Mc Doolittle approach to School to Work Transition in Scotland, they certainly have some really good ideas. Maybe you would find Doctor Doolittle at the zoo talking to the animals, but in Scotland he would also be talking to the Grade 3 students about his job, the types of things he does, the training he had to undertake, and the types of jobs that are similar, his working conditions and the opportunities for promotion. School to Work awareness happens at a really early age and follows a fairly consistent process.

Following my interaction with Doctor Doolittle I had to visit a local physiotherapist as the day before I had driven the length of Loch Ness with my head turned to the right to see if I could enhance my photo album - and maybe even the bank account, but all I managed to capture was a crick neck!

Mentoring is a really big thing in the UK and also in the US. I thought that it would be worth asking the VECO community to share some of the initiatives that are undertaken in programs under the heading of "Mentoring".

Some initiatives include:
- Company directors being linked with school Principals so that they can mentor each other as organisational leaders
- Students from Year 9 and up are linked with mentors from a field of employment in which they are interested
- Senior high students are matched with mentors either from a professional field of interest which leads to a workplacement but goes beyond
- Vocational teachers being linked with an industry mentor to enhance their regular update of industry developments
- In very poor areas of some US cities students being linked with a mentor from a field of interest outside schooling, maybe a hobby or sport, with that person becoming a sounding board for advice and ideas and even just someone with another perspective with whom to have lunch every so often - part of a broader focus on community development.

It would be interesting to hear of the types of mentoring that people are already encouraging.

(and also from someone who may have some recent snaps of Nessie to add to the album)

Richard Laidlaw