It was great to see around 50 delegates, guest speakers, Board members and staff attend this weeks State Conference at Hepburn Springs. The initial feedback from participants has been really positive, and I hope everyone was able to take a few things away from the various speakers and networking to assist your organisation.

Conference highlights

The speeches from Hon. Bronwyn Pike Minister for Education, Minister for Skills and Workforce Participation and Mr. Peter Hall, Shadow Minister for Eduction, Skills & Workforce Participation.

The presentation on the “Future of Group Training” report by Michael Spencer from NIEIR.

The launch of the GTAV new website www.gtav.com.au and www.gtavic.asn.au.

Geoff Foster and Greg Gadowski from Skills Victoria on the proposed funding model for JGTP and other initiatives supporting group training.

Marree Haynes update on the new guidelines for RTO compliance.

The panel session on “ Dealing with Apprentices and Trainees”  from Erica Smith “Improving the retention in apprenticeships using the concept of the psychological contract”, Georgie Ferrari “Dealing with Gen Y” and David Clark “Identifying and handling mental stress.”

As a reminder the USB sticks in your delegate packs contains all the presentations from the conference, and they will also be made available on the new website in the coming weeks.

The conference dinner “ entrée and desert”  was also a great opportunity for all participants to relax and network with other members, with the kitchen obviously working on the same theme as the conference being quality and quantity!

I would also like to thank Peter Treseder from Australian Super for his tremendous work as MC for the 2 days and the staff at GTAV in putting the event together.

We look forward to seeing you all there at the November State Conference being held at Bay View on the Park in Melbourne on 24 & 25 November.