ANNUAL REPORT 2020 Baw Baw Latrobe Local Our Vision Every young person in our local communities Learning and is engaging in learning or employment. Every young person is aspiring to a successful Employment Network future. (BBLLLEN) is an Our Mission Leading innovation, creating opportunities integrated, effective and solutions through local partnerships which assist young people to engage in education, training and learning and employment. employment network Our Purpose established to improve To guide communities to positively connect and support young people to become effective the retention of young members of the community. people in education and Our Goals Sustainable Organisation: to address We will be a strong, sustained organisation that builds community capacity through leadership, disadvantage. brokering partnerships and advocacy. Our work will be informed by evidence and be BBLLLEN creates and supports collaborative responsive to local needs. partnerships between schools, local businesses, industry, community Enhancing Opportunities for every organisations and government departments young person: to support vulnerable young people. We will lead the development of approaches and opportunities for young people. We will BBLLLEN supports the learning and maximise their opportunities for employment needs of young people in Baw • Learning and skill development Baw Shire and Latrobe City. • Careers and employment • Leadership • Social and emotional well-being Contents Our community values young Chairperson’s Report 2 people: Executive Officer’s Report 3 We will facilitate and lead our community to School Industry Workshop 4 support every young person and to recognise Future Self / It’s a W.R.A.P 5 their value. I Am Ready 6 Inspiring Young People 8 Apprenticeship/Traineeship Webinar 9 Traralgon College Mock Interviews 10 Structured Workplace Learning 11 Vocational Education & Training DSS 12 Highlights of the LLEN 2007-2019 14 Financials 20 Board of Management 2019/2020 29 Leaving School Resources 30 People at the LLEN 31 1 Chairperson's Report As I write this report Victoria has just had more restrictions eased from the dreaded Corona Virus which has seen 2020 be the year that will always be remembered as 2020. Like most other organisations this has caused significant headaches for the LLEN and the board of management. With a new contract announced in October the board of management and staff were keen to get stuck into the contracts new focus of bringing together young people and industry to make transitioning into work and out of education much easier. However, with the onset of the pandemic this saw many initiatives put on hold while our staff and stakeholders worked on how to deal with what was the new normal. Over this period of time I can’t thank the board of management enough for their willingness to continue to be involved in our operations especially via zoom meetings which normally occurred in the evening well after everyone was zoomed out from their zoom meetings during the day. Also, to the staff the job you have done while working in isolation at home has been exceptional and has certainly been a great help to the young people we support. Over the last 12 months I do really want to commend Lisa and her team on the fantastic effort they put in and the achievements they have made under very difficult circumstances. Personally, just before COVID I was involved in a planning day facilitated by Maree McPherson which saw school and education representatives as well as industry come together to discuss how best to work together. This day was fantastic and although the momentum was halted slightly the benefits of such a day will be seen long into the future. To see some of the other achievements through this time such as the extension of the “I am ready program” into 2021, Traineeship/Apprenticeship information session and a modified adoption of the future-self program which is designed to raise awareness for students looking for career pathways. It is fair to say with what has happened in 2020, the Baw Baw Latrobe LLEN’s role in 2021 and helping youth get back on track will be really significant, which I know for all involved, is going to be exciting to be a part of. A big thank you must also go to the retiring members of the board Cheryl Drayton and Jessica O’Donnell who we thank for your time and effort and we certainly know you won’t be lost to us forever. Lastly I know everyone involved in the LLEN are looking forward to getting through our AGM and moving into 2021 where hopefully we can get back to some normality, gain the momentum the young people deserve and bring to life all of the programs we know are going to make a difference. Thanks again to everyone involved and bring on 2021. Regards, Warwick Baum 2 Executive Officer's Report Well, what a year….! I am sure that I make that statement each year, but this year certainly has been a year like no other. The start of 2020 began with a very successful School/industry workshop and helped inform our plans and actions for the year. It was decided that there was some need for school staff who work with students around career pathway to better understand the job opportunities that exists for young people in our area. We put in place a number of initiatives to be rolled out throughout the year that would increase the interaction of career staff and employers in the area, but then COVID hit and this year was now going to look very different than what we had initially envisaged. By mid-March we had transitioned from working in our Office to now working from home. Zoom, Teams, & daily numbers were very much part of our everyday vocabulary. We were now working ‘virtually’ and the only time we got to interact with our work colleagues was via a computer screen. Our plans for the year had now gone out the window as schools were also delivering classes online and many workplaces had staff working from home or were not prepared to have students on site. Work experience and Structured Workplace Learning was two of the program areas that was most impacted by COVID and so this has had a significant effect on student’s ability to meet the practical components of a number of courses this year. The new COVID world had given us the opportunity to do things differently and fortunately the LLEN Team were very much up for the challenge. Of the programs that we had planned to deliver this year, we looked at how we could do this virtually. A successful week of mock interviews was delivered to Traralgon College students with employers interviewing the students online for the very first time. Our Apprenticeship and Traineeship Information Evening, which had been very well attended last year became an online event which meant that we were able to access speakers that may not have attended an in person due to them being located in Melbourne. Our Health Dinner was delivered as two Health Careers Webinars that has health professionals talking about their roles without leaving the confines of their home or workplace. The ‘It’s a Wrap’ program was ramped up, ensuring more students could now prepare a mock job application, send it through to an employer via email and receive feedback. We examined how work readiness support could be delivered to students virtually as they would not be attending work places for the foreseeable future. We were lucky enough to convince Leah Mether from Mether Communications to work with us on a series of short videos aptly named ‘Job Seeker Secrets ’that could be shared across multiple platforms that would provide students with lots of great tips when job seeking. We put together a number of resources for schools and students that provide a wealth of information for students leaving school. Although it has been a very disruptive year in many ways, we have had some significant highlights as well. Cameron Blair joined our Team to replace Lisa Briggs who took up a position with AGL Loy Yang. We were successful in receiving a grant to deliver the Future Self program for the next 2 years. We have worked with an amazing number of local organisations to form a Consortium to bid for the right to manage the Latrobe Youth Space and if successful, see the development of Latrobe Youth Space Inc. The evaluation of the ‘’I Am Ready’ program by Federation University confirmed our belief that the program did have a significant impact on students with a disability and we have continued to support the Baw Baw Live4Life initiative to become a highly regarded program across schools in Baw Baw. In closing, can I thank the amazing LLEN staff, Jenni, Erlinda, Kirby & Cameron who have continued to go above and beyond in all that they do to ensure that the LLEN continues to be a valued and trusted organisation across schools, employers, our community partners and the Department of Education and Training. Can I also thank Warwick Baum as Board Chair and all our Board members for their 3 continued support, wisdom and commitment to the Baw Baw Latrobe LLEN. School Industry Workshop On the 13th February we held a School/Employer workshop to assist us in establishing priorities and actions that the LLEN would work on in 2020. The workshop was facilitated by Maree McPherson and included 15 employers, 13 school staff, 1 DET staff member, 5 LLEN staff and the Chair of the Board. Some of the discussion at the workshop included: Good collaboration requires earlier exposure between young people and employers Profiling job roles and how work is changing is crucial for Students and Teachers OH&S