Abbott urged to rescue school-business network after praising US programs
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Version 0 of 1. Tony Abbott is being urged to back up his professed support for “innovative” links between schools and businesses by rescuing a partnership program whose funding is about to expire. While visiting an IBM-backed college in New York on Wednesday, the prime minister argued Australia should consider following the American model of schools partnering with major companies and “learn from good and innovative programs that have been put into place, successfully put into place, in other countries”. But funding for an Australian program called School Business Community Partnership Brokers – which acts as an intermediary to encourage links between schools and business – is due to expire in December. The $47m a year program was not extended in last month’s budget. “I’m encouraged that the prime minister recognises the need for business to invest in education and the need for people to make career choices before they leave school,” said Craig Dadds, executive officer of Partnership Brokers central network. “I'm disappointed that this comes on the back of our funding being cut. It’s not that our funding has been cut by 20% – it’s that it’s been cut entirely,” he said. The Partnership Brokers network is run by 87 organisations in 107 regions. The brokers aim to build partnerships among schools and training organisations, business and industry tailored to local needs, and focus on students at risk of disengaging from school. An evaluation by Social Ventures Australia of five Partnership Brokers regions found that for every $1 spent by the federal government, the program had been the catalyst for up to $5.50 of created social value, a Department of Education report said. Such benefits included allowing schools to take advantage of external resources to free up existing school resources, broadening professional networks to provide increased career opportunities for students, and aligning school activities with industry needs, the report said. Dadds said the program was flexible depending on local circumstances and had led to partnerships involving 2,300 schools, 1,800 businesses and 1,900 community organisations. Employers were keen to improve young people’s skills and provide job opportunities, but often needed an intermediary to open the doors to “make it happen”, he said. The former Labor government allocated $183m in funding for the program between January 2010 and December 2013, and gave it a 12-month lifeline in its final budget. The Coalition government pointed to the lack of future funding when it told operators the program would not be renewed. Scott Ryan, the parliamentary secretary to the education minister, said Labor had allocated no funding to continue the program after 2014 and the Coalition government had to make “difficult decisions” to tackle debt and deficit. “No further funding or budget was provided for the program to continue beyond this year,” Ryan said in a letter to operators last month. “Not increasing the debt and deficit burden that Australians will need to service through higher taxes or reduced services in future years is an important part of our commitment to young Australians.” Ryan said state and territory governments and non-government school systems were “responsible for ensuring schools are engaged in both the broader community and assisting students to make choices and take advantage of work, training and education activities”. On Wednesday Abbott praised New York’s Pathways in Technology Early College High School, which in partnership with IBM offers students a chance to complete high school while also completing an associate degree in applied science. The IT giant provides mentoring and grants job interviews to graduates. The prime minister said it was “terrific” to see a major business involved in a hands-on way, noting that many young people ended school not knowing what career they would pursue and businesses complained they could not find workers. “What I am doing is, I guess, exposing myself to what is being done creatively and innovatively here in the United States so that it can inform the kind of policy that we will be bringing forward as part of our competitiveness statement in a month or so time,” he said. Labor's education spokeswoman, Kate Ellis, accused Abbott of inconsistency: “This is the same prime minister who has just cut the Partnership Brokers program, which was successfully joining industry and schools right here in Australia.” Carmen Auer, chair of the Partnership Brokers national network, wrote to Abbott in February calling for a funding extension, saying the partnerships enabled business “to play an active role in addressing the workforce development challenges that are holding many businesses back”. |