Last year the Commonwealth committed to a new foundation skills programme, including for remote Australia, and asked for advice on delivery.
In general, responses focused on longer funding periods and embedding resources in communities, with advice on specifics including:
- For remote learners: First Nations languages and culture incorporated in learning design and “generic competency-based training which is not aligned to individual, or community goals, is rarely successful.”
- Programme design: should be co-designed and community led
- Partnerships: “community controlled organisations are best placed to design programmes from a culturally safe and often trauma-informed perspective.”
- Capacity building: programmes should not depend on key personnel, lest all is undone if they leave. Commonwealth DoE should work with state agencies to develop the foundation skills teaching workforce for remote areas
- Funding: “needs to reflect the real costs of delivering in remote areas with mainstream ‘value for money’ principles being inappropriate for remote delivery.”
- Assessing performance: use the Productivity Commission’s Indigenous Evaluating Strategy
A takeout: “Stakeholders were clear that it was essential that the development of measures and conduct of assessments was approached sensitively, given the prior experience that many First Nations people may have had with Western education.”
