The purpose of the Roundup newsletter is to summarise activities in the VECO community for the previous month and to give notice of upcoming events.

During March, 30 new people joined the VECO community(or rejoined with a new address). To those new people, welcome and we trust that this newsletter helps to provide ready access to the many resources available via the VECO website.

March was a busy month in the general VECO discussion with 56 individuals contributing to the 110 messages posted.

A “Good news” posting about feedback from an Indigenous student in the form of a poem inspired many and was a ray of light amongst the sustainability discussions that carried over from last month.

The issue of new requirements for statistical reporting being a hot item of debate. ECEF responded to coordinators’ concerns by modifying the reporting requirements.

Workplacement issues such as sexual harassment, cross border placements and equity for students with a disability were raised with help being sought and received.

Several other disability issues were raised on the general VECO email list as well as on the Disability-Forum Special Focus network. Input was sought about “electronic economy” workplacements and lots of interesting material was gathered though not much was shared publicly. Another request for assistance with workplacement ideas for deaf students resulted in several leads.

Visit the archives for details of discussions – follow the links from:
http://www.veco.ash.org.au/community/voced-coord.asp
http://www.veco.ash.org.au/disability/

Towards the end of March the VECO community had the honour of Tom Bentley from the UK being a brief but brilliant online guest on the topic of "Learning Beyond the Classroom".

In the 3 days of the event, many people responded to ideas around appropriate research models with opinions and attitudes to action research resulting in some lively interchange. Tom shared some recent policy initiatives from the UK which may have application here including alternative funding models.

For details and links to the discussion archives, visit the website at
http://www.veco.ash.org.au/guest/tombentley

Event report: ECEF and Go Career Launch launched
http://www.veco.ash.org.au/events/eceflaunch/

Tom Bentley Online Guest event – “Learning Beyond the Classroom”
http://www.veco.ash.org.au/guest/tombentley

“Don’t Reinvent the Wheel” – document collection for programs
http://www.veco.ash.org.au/sitemap - look under “Share Info”

Noticeboard items:
- Scholarship gives women IT powered wings (closes April 10)
- Golden Circle ‘Kid Start Farms’ 2001 program (closes July 31)
http://www.veco.ash.org.au/noticeboard

Resources Library:
Certificate 1 in Employment Skills Training
http://www.veco.ash.org.au/resourcesdb

Program Registry:
- DISCO program (11/12 Qld) – details updated
- Thursday Island State High School Links program (11/12, Qld) – NEW
- Warriapendi School to Work Program (11/12, SA) – NEW
http://www.veco.ash.org.au/vecopr

The VECO website served 24,119 pages to 7772 visitors during March
- previous month: 21 852 pages were served to 5859 visitors
- same time last year: 11 183 pages served to 4276 visitors.

The most popular sections of the website were the online guest section, event reports, Project Gallery and Resources Library

April 4, 2001, Alice Springs: Spotlight on the Provider: Partnerships in regional and remote training delivery

April 19-21, Hobart: 10th National Australian Association for Careers Counsellors national conference – Creating workplaces where people matter

May 4, Melbourne: Up-grading Assessment? Graded competency-based assessment in VET

May 12, Albury-Wodonga: Albury Wodonga Manufacturing Careers Expo

May 16, Adelaide: NCVER Research Forum – Australian Apprenticeships, Facts Fiction and Future (repeated Melbourne May 23, Sydney June 4, Darwin June 13, Perth June 26, Hobart July 5, Canberra July 27, Brisbane August 10)

May 24-25, Sydney: Training at work: success stories and practical strategies for Training Packages users

June 21, Sydney: Tourism and Hospitality 2001 national conference

July 8-11, Wagga Wagga: SPERA Conference 2001 – Providing quality education and training for rural Australia

July 10, Geelong: NCVER Training Research Conference/Workshop

July 16, Wolverhampton, UK: Vocational Education and Training research 4th International Conference

August 10, Sydney: Unlocking Training Packages – success stories and practical strategies

August 24-25, Adelaide: PCETA SA State Conference 2001 – “Staying On, Moving on – Success for All”

September 24, Adelaide: NCVER Research Forum - Return on Investment in Training (repeated Sydney October 19, Melbourne November 2)

October 15-17, Brisbane: NET*Working 2001 – From Virtual to Reality

December 2, Perth: 2001 Annual Conference of the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) Crossing Borders: New Frontiers for Educational Research

With Easter approaching, we are entering a relatively quiet period of time. Perhaps you could find 15 minutes to update youir program registry entry before Easter?

I will be taking some leave until after Easter and Kylie Parker from ECEF will be taking care of VECO during that time. Please contact her with any queries or requests for assistance:

Kylie Parker
ECEF website Coordinator
email: kparker@ecef.com.au
ph: 1800 626 839

Happy Easter to all
Janine Bowes
ECEF, VECO Coordinator