Many of you may have seen the recent reports on the Northern Territory’s international student pilot program. This small-scale program of around 70 students is a welcome step in the right direction, and I look forward to seeing its outcome in late October.
One of the significant challenges of pilot programs will be their scalability. Tomorrow, English Australia will showcase its work to support member-only pilot programs and a scaleable to returning international students to Australia in a COVID-safe manner. ‘Safe Travels’, is an initiative that has been developed in collaboration with the Australian Tourism Export Council (ATEC) and leading biometric health passport provider, goPassport. goPassport is an end to end real-time platform which can manage the health risk of reopening borders. Pilot programs will be important to validate the process to support the safe arrival of our students, but a critical success factor is scalability. I look forward to sharing information on the initiative with you all.
The initiative has been a major focus of English Australia over the past few months as we have looked for a solution that meets the needs of our members. We still have a lot of work to do, working with state and territory governments, but this will be a high priority of English Australia in the coming months. While our pilot program is not a silver bullet, it is future-focused and offers a managed approach to a COVID-safe return of our international students.
Thank you for an amazing Conference
This month saw us host the 32nd English Australia Conference in a virtual format. We had an amazing number of registrations for this year’s event, seeing more than 1,200 delegates in our largest ever Conference. I’m incredibly proud that we could offer this year’s Conference at no cost to members while still retaining the quality of a typical English Australia Conference.
It was an honour to have the Federal Education Minister, the Hon. Dan Tehan, open the Conference and recognise the importance of the ELICOS sector and our members’ resilience in facing the coronavirus pandemic.
I hope everyone enjoyed the broad range of sessions that were on offer, and I’d like to thank each of our speakers for contributing their time to support us, particularly those international speakers presenting with the added challenge of alternative time zones.
I would also like to thank all of our Conference sponsors:
Their ongoing support was critical in enabling us to deliver a high-quality virtual conference to you this year.
Finally, a huge congratulations to our industry award winners. The achievements of all the deserving winners reflect the professionalism and commitment that make our sector a world-class destination for students who want to learn English with quality institutions. Details of each of our award winners can be located here.
Board update and a reminder for State/ Territory nominations
Yesterday, we saw the appointment of four of our Board members following our General Delegate election:
- Aparna Jacob
- Steve Knussen
- Cynthia Kralik
- Sally Waite.
I would like to congratulate all four Delegates and thank everyone who nominated and participated in this year’s election. Your support of these important aspects of membership ensures our Board has strong representation from across the sector. A strength of English Australia is having a confident and committed Board, and we are well served in this regard. Our reappointed Board members reflect the diversity and capability that exists within our sector and will continue to positively serve member interests.
2020 AGM – mark your calendar
With yesterday’s formal announcement of our Annual General Meeting (AGM), I would encourage you to register for this event. Our AGM is your chance to hear directly from the English Australia Board and the Secretariat on our performance in the past financial year. This year’s AGM will be held via videoconference on Tuesday 20 October 2020.
If you would like to attend on behalf of your college and hold your college’s voting rights, please complete the Representative form. Non-voting Representatives can also attend provided they complete the Non-voting Representatives form.
ELICOS Quarterly Market Insight survey Q3 data collection
Thank you to all the members that have participated in the previous survey periods and to those that have also committed to participating in the 3rd quarter of our Quarterly ELICOS Market Insights Program.
This program will again include the data from both 2019 and 2020, and the data collection will be coordinated by our survey partner, Bonard.
The Q2 survey report started to highlight the significant impact on our sector, and I know Q3 will demonstrate further why our sector needs support. The data also greatly assists our advocacy efforts on your behalf. As the student visa data reports for July have just been released, this report will deliver insights well before other data is published. A reminder that you will receive the pivot table and report as a participant.
Liaison with our regulators
I was delighted to meet with TEQSA’s new CEO Alistair Maclean this week. We had a positive discussion regarding the role of quality in English language teaching as a critical aspect of our sector’s success. The meeting was a good opportunity to share views on working together, which will be supported by our Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that we will soon renew.
I will be supporting ASQA in the coming month in their consultation process on effective self-assurance, which is a major strategic focus for the agency. I will seek member input as part of this important process.
I will also be representing member interests at ASQA’s Quarterly Provider Roundtable meeting with Peak bodies next week. Please let me know if you have any matters that you would like raised at this meeting.
Any questions? Please ask
I would like to again say that I am always available should you wish to raise any issues with me. Please do not hesitate to contact me and I will be happy to provide whatever assistance I can.
