A DEDICATED head teacher from TAFE NSW in Bathurst is about to travel overseas to embark on an exciting research project.
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Jennifer Polk is the head teacher of the Bathurst, Cowra and Grenfell Career Pathways and Employability Skills faculty and recently won the prestigious Premier’s Teacher Scholarship.
Her win was not only a fantastic achievement, but also her ticket to a five-week tour to Iceland, Finland and Denmark.
While there, she will undertake further research to build on the application she submitted that won the scholarship, which is titled Breaking the Cycle – The role of TAFE NSW in lowering youth unemployment and re-engaging those classified as NEET (Not in Employment, Education or Training).
"It's profoundly important, I think because, percentage wise in terms of 2016, Bathurst youth unemployment was at 14.3 per cent," Ms Polk said.
"It is high and with an aging population in the Central West and Bathurst, and a higher percentage of youth unemployment, it's just important that we do all that we can to decrease that number to ensure a strong community."
As part of Ms Polk's proposal, she had to detail the places she wanted to visit, which required a lot of research, planning and conversations with people in those places.
The countries she chose are places she feels she can learn innovative ideas that can be introduced at TAFE to better prepare young people for employment.
A youth conference is on her itinerary and meetings are scheduled with Scandinavian equivalents of TAFE and researchers.
"In Finland, a researcher has put together a seminar for me, so I'm meeting with 10 people and I'm presenting about Australia, what we're doing, and then they're presenting what Finland's doing," she said. "In many ways it's kind of a sharing of ideas."
While Ms Polk hopes to bring back a slew of ideas that can TAFE can enact, the education provider has already started to do things differently.
Under a recent change, students in courses outside of Ms Polk's faculty are now being taught employability skills as part of their education.
The skills include critical thinking, problem solving, team work and resilience.
"Back in the day, you needed to have technical skills, but because of automation computers can do a lot of those technical skills," Ms Polk said.
"Nowadays, in order to keep and maintain employment you really need to be quite strong in these employability skills."
The trip overseas is a continuation of Ms Polk's deep desire and passion to provide quality education to young people.
Ms Polk received her teaching qualifications in North America, having grown up in Fairfax, Virginia, near Washington DC.
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"I actually come from a family of educators. My grandfather was a university professor, my grandmother was a history teacher in high school, my mother was a primary school teacher, so it's kind of in the blood," she said.
"I just always knew that I wanted to do something that had a direct impact on the people that I work with and the students that I teach."
She moved to Australia from the United States almost 10 years ago and came to Bathurst in 2016, being based in Dubbo as a TAFE employee prior to that.
Ms Polk said TAFE has been very supportive of her as she prepared for this trip and she looks forward to bringing back new knowledge that she and the education provider can use to tackle an important issue.
"I think youth unemployment is something we've all got to be aware of in terms of what we can do as a community to ensure young people are skilled and ready for employment opportunities, because it is really in everyone's benefit," she said.
