The Falzon

Tired of weasel words and new public management, I have been doing a little research on the need to for the organisation I work for to maintain fee exempt course as part of their social responsibility. It brought me back to John Falzon. His passionate eloquently written prose inspires reflection and critical thought that is foreign to the management drivel I read and am exposed to way too much of. Like my friend Leigh, this is a man who is not motivated by hatred and will not let hatred get in the way of promoting social justice and the common good. In his article Social Crisis Social change he speaks out against paternalism and its punitive drivers:

The alternative to the “instrumental” approach is the movement for liberation. All progressive social changes have been won through the hard work of those who believed that another kind of society is possible. This approach can be neither paternalistic nor coercive. It is best summed up in the powerful words of Lilla Watson and the group of Aboriginal activists she was part of in Brisbane in the 1970s: “If you have come to help me you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”

Australian Workforce Futures

A National Workforce Development Strategy

Julia Gillard has just launched Skills Australia's latest contribution which makes mention of Outreach programs on a couple of occasions. Julia acknowledges those marginalised with particular reference to LLN.

Critical to achieving these will be our ability to lift the rate of workforce participation for those groups of people who are not participating to their full potential, including those who are marginalised due to a lack of skills, particularly the foundation skills of language, literacy and numeracy.

The executive summary highlights the success of Outreach programs:

We recommend strategies to encourage the delivery of further education and training in more flexible and innovative ways to suit the needs and interests of employees at different stages of their working life. One way to achieve this for existing workers would be through a more flexible approach to using employer incentives to support training for those who are not apprentices or trainees. For job seekers we recommend extending the highly successful flexible outreach programs which have successfully encouraged and equipped many women to rejoin the workforce.

The paper reflects on seeking solutions to effective outcomes with the most marginalised in our communities by learning from others.

Models of successful programs to engage marginalised people and at risk groups need to be studied, adapted and applied as appropriate. The examples that follow demonstrate how flexibility, partnerships and community involvement can make a difference: The Men’s Shed: A highly successful, flexible outreach program that helps marginalized people to participate in the community and workforce has been established in the Nambucca Shire.

Adult Student Guide

Looking for new material? Here is a link to the great resource. Its an American site that has loads of resources and self directed learning resources that you could use for the students and also in your preparation for classes ok. The site is the Adult Student Guide. Here is an example for developing goals:

• Decide where you are / what your current status is: Use your feelings and intuition, assess your situation, obtain and analyze any available data, and ask for input from others.
• Locate where you want to go or be: Based on where you are, decide where you want to go.
• Develop a course based on the conditions you want to satisfy: Using the data collected above, and input from other sources, create a listing or chart of what steps need to be accomplished to get to where you want to be.
• Chart your progress: Check off the items accomplished. Make notes about things that need updating or changing.
• Alter plans based on new information and opportunities: Time changes things no matter what. What you dreamed of 5 years ago may be quite different from what you visualize now. New obstacles, responsibilities, and opportunities are sure to pop up after the first draft of your goals. Don't be afraid to revisit the plan to add new tasks or delete items that are no longer relevant. Worth checking out ok - http://www.adultstudent.com/student/goals.html