The Murray Mallee LLEN in partnership with North Central LLEN and Northern Mallee LLEN facilitated the Early Childhood Education and Care Career Pathways School Industry Roundtable with the aim of working with industry and training providers to create ideas and develop new and innovative approaches to addressing barriers in this critical sector.

As part of the Transforming Career Education in Victorian Government Schools plan, the Victorian Government is funding a number of School Industry Roundtables across the state each year.

The School Industry Roundtable (SIR) targeted Early Childhood Education and Care and the range of different entry-level career pathways students can follow with support from the industry sector, local employers, higher education and training providers, and secondary schools.

Some key takeaways from the day included the brainstorming of a pipeline featuring ideas around awareness, interest, desire and action which included;

• More career awareness and education for young people considering their career pathway;
• Creating workplace exposures prior to placement to boost interest in these career pathways;
• Work experience in Yrs 9 and 10 and how we can expand on that early passion from young people and;
• Addressing various training pathway barriers to ensure successful outcomes

The SIR targeted Early Childhood Education and Care where industry and training/education representatives came up with an action plan involving three working groups who will follow up on key issues raised including a focus on career awareness, year 9 and 10 work experience and barriers in training.

Career Awareness

The career awareness working group came up with a range of ideas including;

• Creating more awareness of the LLENs and what they do in this space
• Developing a ‘Toolkit’ with relevant and up-to-date information for young people around clarification of job roles in Early Childhood Education, study pathways and resources to get them on their desired path and into the workforce
• Creating more immersive experiences with mentors such as SWL or work experience/exposure opportunities

Work Experience

The work experience working group came up with a range of ideas including;

• Organising some community projects to give young people some more work exposure prior to work experience
• Discuss opportunities for a funded support person to assist with industry and create more positive work experience opportunities

Barriers in Training

The barriers in training working group came up with a range of ideas including;

• Collaboration between services to provide better training opportunities in the region
• The LLEN has recently made some progress on this starting a meeting with relevant services who have identified some training barriers in the region which they will now work to address

A special note of thanks to Jeanette Pope, Former Foundation for Young Australians Director for facilitating the discussion, Will Trimble and Jane Maine and others from the Department of Education and Training and, North Central LLEN and Northern Mallee LLEN for collaborating with Murray Mallee LLEN to deliver the School Industry Roundtables across the Mallee in Swan Hill and Mildura.

We would also like to thank everyone for their participation in the day and a huge thank you to those who assisted in making it so successful; we look forward to building and collaborating on the communities tailored responses to engage and excite young people for a career in Early Childhood Education and Care settings.