Teachers and trainers are vital to the quality of the VET sector, and to the success of its learners

By The Conversation - Thursday, October 25th, 2018

Vocational Education and Training (VET) is an important part of the education sector and trains people of all ages for occupations vital across all sectors of the economy. It also makes a major contribution to social inclusion.

Australia endlessly debates the ATAR level needed even to enter teacher-training programs for school teaching.

But it doesn’t seem to care about the qualifications of those who teach our young people, workers and citizens in VET. For the last 20 years, VET teachers have only been required to have a Certificate IV level qualification in VET teaching, and the industry qualification at the level at which they are teaching people.

Outsiders Tell How to Fix Australia’s Government Woes

By Ted Smillie - Thursday, October 25th, 2018

The Australian Government’s failures are not for want of external advice. Our September 2018 Issue reported on CSIRO’s Data61 Digital Innovation report, which claimed “A focus on eight key digital industries would yield up to $315 billion in economic value”.

Now a   4th October article in The Mandarin by Stephen Easton,  The most influential voices outside of government on improving the APS, reports on the influence of the  Centre for Strategy and Governance (CSG), noting that “The 20 CSG members are mostly ex-secretaries or deputy secretaries and include two past APS commissioners, Lynelle Briggs and Helen Williams, as well as Ian McPhee, the immediate past auditor-general. Some of the newest to join them are recently departed secretaries Lisa Paul and Gordon de Brouwer, who also sits on the APS Review panel chaired by David Thodey.”

NSW government launches $20m cyber plan, calls for cross-agency collaboration

By Stephen Easton - Thursday, October 25th, 2018

The New South Wales government’s chief information security officer Maria Milosavljevic unveiled the state’s first cyber security strategy in Sydney this morning.
The plan is backed by $20 million in funding and will be followed by a cyber security industry development strategy that is still being developed by the NSW Department of Industry. It builds on the relevant part of the NSW government’s existing digital strategy, and complements the national information security plan that was launched by the Department of Home Affairs in April 2016 and updated in mid-2017.

Educating the next generation of medical professionals with machine learning is essential

By Boston University School of Medicine - Thursday, October 25th, 2018

Artificial intelligence (AI) driven by machine learning (ML) algorithms is a branch in the field of computer science that is rapidly gaining popularity within the healthcare sector. However, graduate medical education and other teaching programs within academic teaching hospitals across the US and around the world have not yet come to grips with educating students and trainees on this emerging technology.