By Mikayla van Loon
Box Hill Institute has been recognised as the inclusive training provider of the year at the 2021 Victorian Training awards, something the organisation has been working towards.
It’s the first time the TAFE has won the award after being named a finalist many years in a row.
Executive Director of Educational Delivery Jane Trewin said Box Hill Institute has put a lot of effort into ensuring courses are accessible to all students, particularly at the Lilydale campus.
“We are very proud that we treat everyone the same and we want to give everyone the same opportunity but that does mean that one size doesn’t fit all, we do have to customize, we do have to redesign, we do have to make sure we upskill our staff to be able to do it,” she said.
“So it’s a big commitment but it’s a really valuable commitment and it’s not negotiable in my mind.”
While much of the focus for many of Box Hill Institute’s programs is providing courses and a safe space for people with disability to learn, Ms Trewin said the inclusivity reaches to First Nations peoples and students from various multicultural backgrounds.
“We do a lot of different programs for Indigenous communities and there’s a lot of cultural units embedded in a lot of our courses.
“So it is very important that we understand how we need to approach things differently with different cultures.”
Lilydale campus trainer in animal studies and land sciences Michaela Brown said having worked for the training provider for seven years she has seen how the TAFE really caters the learning to each individual student.
“Once they actually get into the classroom, that’s where I feel the real one on one and understanding of that student begins,” she said.
“The teachers I know and all the ones I’ve worked with have taken it really under their wing to work out how students learn and what best resources would actually match each of them.”
The hands-on courses Box Hill Institute offers at the Lilydale Lakeside campus, like horticulture, Ms Brown said really translate to all people with diverse backgrounds.
A few years ago she was involved in teaching a group of refugees from Burma, where there was quite a strong language barrier but Ms Brown said she just had to adapt her teaching methods.
“I’ve found it to be one of the most rewarding things is having such a variety of classes, I’ve had the adult migrant English program, I do a disability group as well and I do high school students, and then I’ve got adult learners,” she said.
“So I’ve just ranged throughout the whole time of my career at Box Hill and I’ve found that that probably made me the teacher that I am today because I’ve been able to rise to some challenges that have come into that classroom setting and I’ve found each student to be very individual with how they learn.”
One of the big things throughout the lockdowns over the last two years was ensuring students had the resources and opportunities to continue learning.
Ms Trewin said that may have been something that separated Box Hill from other institutions because they were hand-delivering resources to students who couldn’t use computers and coming up with other methods of practical learning.
“We had to really look at how we can assist these people just to stay engaged and still be able to complete their programs and really help them,” she said.
“If we had a student with disability learning a hospitality course, they would normally be working in our cafes or restaurants on campus and learning these skills face to face.
“So we were setting up scenarios to try and make them as comfortable as possible to be able to do it in their home.”
As things change from a government level, Ms Trewin said every registered training organisation should be considering what it can do to be more inclusive and should partner with industry to continue providing opportunities even after graduation.
“It has been really important that we work with these people because a lot of times they can support and they help them get jobs in the end as well and that’s when you seriously change people’s lives,” she said.
“It’s really rewarding for me, yes, but it’s about the students not about us. When you do get to see these students graduating, there’s never a dry eye in the place I can tell you.”
