Collaborative Learning Pathways: Supporting Students where they are in the PreVET Project

Consistent academic underachievement by Indigenous and students from language backgrounds other than English (LBOTE) has been a long running problem in Australia. Despite many national initiatives, students from these groups still fall behind in achievement. These types of statistics have been occurring for too long not to inquire into alternative ways to address their presence. This paper presents a project conducted by the Northern Territory Department of Education and Children’s Services (DECS) and Charles Darwin University (CDU) in the Northern Territory (NT) of Australia which attempts to address challenges of educational and workforce engagement, low achievement and poor retention of remote Indigenous and LBOTE pupils through a unique resource called PreVET. The gaps in educational engagement of Indigenous students are complex in their origins, and this paper in no way attempts to explain the reasons for them. It will describe approaches taken through the PreVET project to illustrate how collaboration on all levels can lead to progress towards our goals, and demonstrate the importance of the processes through which this has been attempted. Through collaboration between staff at DECS and CDU, as well as reference groups assembled from Indigenous stakeholders, industry representatives and education experts, the project incorporates expertise in the application of theory in real life situations in an attempt to close the gap between Indigenous educational engagement and successful post-school futures.