Re-focusing on learning regions DRAFT Paper: Theme 10, Education and Training (Learning) by Ian Falk and Sue Kilpatrick, Centre for Research and Learning in Regional Australia, University of Tasmania Re-focusing on learning regions: Education, training and lifelong learning for Australia’s wellbeing Ian Falk and Sue Kilpatrick Centre for Research and Learning in Regional Australia, University of Tasmania Education is at the heart of both personal and community development; its mission is to enable us, without exception, to develop all our talents to the full. THE 1996 REPORT OF THE UNESCO TASK FORCE ON EDUCATION FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY. Healthy regions = healthy nation A healthy national economy is made up of healthy regions. Education, training and lifelong learning are fundamental building blocks for achieving healthy regions and therefore for the nation as a whole. Education, training and lifelong learning includes schooling, vocational education and training, higher education and all the informal learning that people engage in at work, in the community and at home. This paper will relate to access to and retention of skills in regions, innovation and links to new industries and school and tertiary education. We will adopt a scenario approach, where the challenges and issues will be demonstrated by a case, snapshot or scenario taken wherever possible from real life. What do we know about education training and learning for Australia’s regions? 1 Managing change Education, training and lifelong learning plays a crucial role in managing change in a global economy for individuals, businesses and communities. Small businesses are more likely to successfully adapt and change if their managers have post-school education and training. Education and training improves willingness and ability to make successful changes by: 1. awareness of a greater number of possible new practices; 2. enhancing ability to select changes that will be successful; 3. developing a positive attitude to new practices; and 4. increasing confidence to make changes. In small business, most changes draw on several learning sources, ranging from training activities through learning from other businesses to reading and trial and error. Over one third of farm businesses surveyed recently drew on skills and knowledge from training activities in making management changes. In this example, a Queensland farmer talks about learning to computerise farm financial records. She used a short training session initially, and followed that up with one-on-one contact with the program supplier and her consultant, as well as learning from using the program: “We computerised all the property books … I had a one-day intensive workshop on the program that we bought … I'm still learning and things but it took about 12 months after that that we could actually then start to use those budgets and planning … They've [the program supplier] got an 1800 number … It was actually through our financial consultant that we started to computerise things … I found things like