OPENING ADDRESS

Minister Andrew Giles

Minister for Skills and Training

Andrew Giles is the Albanese Government's Minister for Skills and Training and is the Federal Member for Scullin in Melbourne's North. He previously served in the Albanese Government as the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs.

Born and raised in Melbourne, Andrew is a keen reader and runner and an avid supporter of the Carlton Football Club. Andrew has a LLB (Hons) and BA from the University of Melbourne. Prior to his election to Parliament, Andrew worked as a Principal Lawyer in employment law for Slater and Gordon and as a Senior Associate at Holding Redlich.

Since his election in 2013, Andrew served as the Shadow Assistant Minister for Schools between 2016 and 2019, before serving as the Shadow Minister for Cities and Urban Infrastructure and Shadow Minister for Multicultural Affairs from 2019 to 2022.

kEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Dr Don Zoellner

Charles Darwin University

Dr Don Zoellner has been a senior leader in school, vocational and higher education sectors in the NT since 1973 including Centralian College and Charles Darwin University. He was a panel member of the Shergold Review of Senior Secondary Pathways and served on numerous NT and national advisory committees, reviews and evaluations of education and training.

He has chaired Group Training NT and the Industry Skills Advisory Council NT boards. He was the NT representative on the Australian Industry and Skills Committee and a member of the National VET Regulator Advisory Council. He independently researches, presents and publishes on VET.

Kira Clarke

Brotherhood of St Laurence

Kira Clarke is a Principal Research Fellow for Skills and Training in in the Social Policy and Research Centre (SPARC) at the Brotherhood of St Laurence (BSL), where she leads the Education, Skills & Training team. For twenty years Kira has been researching educational policy and practice, with a focus on youth transitions and vocational education and training.

Prior to joining BSL in early 2020, Kira spent more than 15 years at the University of Melbourne as a teaching and research lecturer in education policy. At BSL Kira and her team are leading SPARC’s education, skills and training policy and research program of work, which includes streams of work on employment based training, employability, place-based innovation partnerships with industry for co-designing new pathways to entry level work.

Kira is the current President of the Australasian Vocational Education and Research Association (AVETRA) and Victorian co-convener of WAVE (Women in Adult & Vocational Education).

AVETRA

AVETRA 26 is organised by the Australasian Vocational Education and Training Research Association (AVETRA), with the support of FineHaus

Telephone

AVETRA Secretariat
+61 3 3 8658 6641

Email

Conference Administration
FineHaus

AVETRA Website

www.avetra.org.au