Workforce Development & Support
In addition to building partnerships with key providers of professional learning and education leadership, the CEP facilitates a number of initiatives to support rural and remote communities in building a strong workforce.
Professional Development
Each year, CEP delivers a number of professional learning opportunities that are designed to support the work of education provision within rural and remote communities. These opportunities include professional development with a range of internationally recognised education presenters such as Sir John Jones, Steve Munby and Maggie Farrer.
Each year a program is developed in partnership with rural and remote education communities and is then delivered in rural communities.
For specific professional development programs, check out the Rural Learning Hub.
Rural Education Award
The Country Education Partnership established the Rural Education Award to showcase the outstanding achievements and practices of education leaders, and educators, in rural and remote learning communities. This award was established and initially supported by the CEP Patron, Mr Bailieu Myer AO.
The annual award recognises outstanding rural education leadership and awards a scholarship of $6,000 scholarship.
Each year the Country Education Partnership invites education communities to nominate educators, education leaders, or education partnerships for the award.
Further information is supplied below:
Rural Education Forums and Conferences
CEP has a long history of facilitating state-wide conferences and forums bringing rural and remote education communities together to discuss innovative solutions to the challenges they face in the provision of education.
These conferences and forums are cross-sectoral and provide a real opportunity for those involved in rural and remote education to explore specific areas related to their role.
Pipeline Leadership
The ‘Rural and Remote Education Leadership – A Pipeline Approach’ initiative stems the CEP’s determination to develop a specific program that links the building of quality education leaders with a sustainable approach to leadership succession across rural and remote communities.
The program is designed for participants to develop their leadership capabilities individually, within their school team, and across their network. It is a vertical leadership program that allows aspiring leaders to work alongside existing principals to plan for the future of their school communities.
Pipeline Leadership is an evidence-based program that is specifically tailored to the rural education setting and is grounded in the work on ‘vertical leadership’ that emerged from the Wallace Foundation in the United States.
The program is a pivotal tool in the ongoing recruitment and retention of high-quality education leaders at an individual education setting, cluster and systemic level.
This program is further detailed at the below:
Rural Learning Summit
The Country Education Partnership hosts a biennial Rural Learning Summit which explores an issue specific to rural learning. The summit is an opportunity for rural and remote education and community leaders to come together, alongside leading key stakeholder groups, engaging in focused discussions to support and enhance quality learning.
Key themes in previous years have included:
- Rural Learning Declaration
Engaging and retaining rural young people in learning - Clustering – Collaborating through Learning Communities
- Rural Learning – Making it Happen (2017)
- Recruitment and Retention of Education Leaders and Educators (2019).
Rural Clusters and University Partnerships
The CEP has developed strong partnerships and connections with teacher education universities to benefit rural school clusters and pre-service teachers.These innovative partnerships deliver teams of pre-service teachers to rural clusters of schools. The pre-service teachers remain for a number of weeks, where they are given opportunities of teaching within a rural environment.
Previously these partnerships have involved:
- Over 250 pre-service teachers
- 16 rural clusters across all DEECD regions and Catholic Education Office Diocese
- 10 university teacher training courses
The outcome of these partnerships has seen approximately 38% of those involved being employed within a rural community upon graduating.