Yarra Valley community members will have access to accredited high-quality education opportunities for two certificates.
Healesville Living and Learning Centre (HLLC) will introduce two free courses for community members thanks to the partnership with Pines Learning.
Pines Learning will offer two free Certificate III courses in Early Childhood Education and Care, and in Individual Support (Ageing and Disability) for the Yarra Valley community members.
Pines Learning chief executive officer Sally Brennan said Pines Learning is a community-based not-for-profit adult education centre in Doncaster East.
“The Certificate III in Early Childhood Education and Care is the minimum qualification that you need to be able to work in childcare. You cannot work in early learning or an early learning centre without a qualification,” she said.
“We all know the challenges that early learning and childcare are facing at the moment, and Pines Learning is extremely aware of these, so our learners, our students are very well trained in this field. They know what’s appropriate behaviour and what isn’t.
“The second course that we’re offering is the Certificate III in Individual Support (Ageing and Disability), and this is a course that will enable you to work in aged care or in disability as a support worker. In some parts of the aged industry, it’s not required. You can get work as a cleaner or a kitchen hand or anything like that, but you can’t work with residents directly without this qualification.
“And the same with the disability, there are certain areas of the disability sector where you don’t need a qualification, but we strongly believe that training is important so that you are able to provide those clients with a quality service. We’re hoping that people will come back to us at the end of this and think about doing the diploma.”
The two courses will be delivered through online classes two days a week and a face-to-face class monthly.
HLLC centre manager Robyn Coslovich said HLLC will support learners to successfully complete the courses.
“We’re basically a support service offering literacy, numeracy assistance to people that are currently studying an accredited program,” she said.
“We’re there for people, who are not confident with their literacy, numeracy skills and feel that they might not be able to finish the program because of their skills, to assist them to make sure that they can complete their assignments so that they can successfully complete the whole program.”
The idea of delivering two courses for the Yarra Valley community came up after the representatives of the two organisations met each other at a conference.
Ms Brennan has lived most of her life in Gladysdale and said she is well aware of the demand for accessible high-quality education from Yarra Valley community members.
“I see Healesville and surrounding areas as my home patch. I’ve worked in this area,” she said.
“I spent a very long time working at the Upper Yarra Community House, which is now Cire Services. I also spent some years at Swinburne, so I know how difficult it is for people in those areas to access quality training that’s not far from home.
“Plus, I look in the local paper, and I don’t see anyone offering training in these areas. I can’t see that there’s any accreditation training being delivered to support people who want these workplace skills to get into these jobs.”
The info sessions for the two courses were held respectively via Zoom on Thursday 24 July for the early childhood education and care course, and on Monday 28 July for the individual support course.
To find out more, please visit Pines Learning’s website at pineslearning.com.au/all-courses or contact Pines Learning via phone on 9842 6726 or via email at info@pineslearning.com.au
