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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-11-10 Daily Xml
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Entrepreneurial Specialist Schools

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Minister for Education) (16:05): It is a great pleasure to be able to talk a little bit about some of the tremendous work underway in our schools. One of the significant programs that the Marshall Liberal government introduced in 2018 upon coming to government was a program of entrepreneurial education in entrepreneurial schools.

As you would be aware, sir, the Heathfield High School in your electorate is one of five schools that were chosen after a competitive process to be one of our five first entrepreneurial schools. It was joined by Murray Bridge High School in the member for Hammond's electorate, Mount Gambier High School, Seaton High School and Banksia Park International High School in the member for Newland's electorate.

They have been doing great work and I thought it would be a good opportunity to update the house and the community on some of the progress they have made in the last two years, some of the dramatic progress that we are extremely happy about in supporting the work of our students to be able to engage and to have the skills, the aptitude and the mindset to be entrepreneurial, whether that means a student is given the best opportunity to learn about how to start a business or, indeed, how to be entrepreneurial to enhance their employment capacity in a large organisation or how to be entrepreneurial in a social setting or a social entrepreneurial setting or so many other ways.

The implementation of the strategy is progressing extremely well. We have a group of schools that is working together, supported, indeed curated, by the pathways team in the education department. It includes developing and delivering entrepreneurial subjects and building the capacity of other schools. The learnings and the projects they are doing will be shared with other secondary alliances and other secondary schools around the state.

The entrepreneurial specialist programs, the formal ones, commenced at the beginning of term 1 with more than 300 semester 1 enrolments across the five schools and additional students enrolling in semester 2. A key focus for this year has been building the capacity of the specialist schools and their alliance schools to deliver those learning opportunities that build the student's entrepreneurial mindset and supporting schools to engage industry and employers in the design, development and delivery of entrepreneurial learning projects and activities.

In one example of the fantastic work our specialist schools are leading, Seaton High School in the western suburbs has developed nine integrated SACE packages that combine existing SACE programs with entrepreneurial learning, vocational education and training qualifications with industry certificates. It is an exceptional step forward and it is really fast-tracking some of the work that can now be shared across South Australia.

These programs are developed and delivered in partnership with business, industry and universities, and they are framed around real-world industry applications. Seaton High School has started working with teachers and leaders from other entrepreneurial specialist schools to build their capacity to develop and deliver their own similar integrated packages framed around their own school's specific expertise, community needs and networks.

The collaborative work between the specialist schools has resulted in the development of a training package that will be refined and ultimately used to empower curriculum leaders in schools across the state to develop similar approaches to meet the needs of their students in a local context with their local businesses, industries and communities. To further embed entrepreneurial capabilities, the five schools are collaborating with the SACE Board in a project to develop the capabilities relating to an entrepreneurial mindset. The scope of this project includes the testing of these capabilities in our entrepreneurial schools this semester.

Another example of capacity building within their own schools and across the alliances is that the schools have partnered with the Academy for Enterprising Girls, a national initiative funded by the Australian government that offers girls aged 10 to 18 the opportunity to develop their skills across a range of design, STEM and business disciplines. Working in collaboration with one of the initiative's key facilitators, Young Change Agents, the specialist schools have participated in a series of workshops that offer immersive design but thinking-based learning opportunities for students and teachers.

Work continues to be underway. The schools are doing terrifically well and the students who are engaged in these programs are very much enjoying them. I have so much enthusiasm and excitement seeing what is going to be achieved in the years ahead by these young people and, indeed, by these excellent schools.

I would like to take this opportunity to reflect on the 82nd anniversary of Kristallnacht, one of the key moments in what was described last night by the Governor as a stain on the history of the world—the Holocaust. It was on the 82nd anniversary of Kristallnacht that the Adelaide Holocaust Museum and Steiner Education Centre was launched last night. It is now going to be open to the public and open to school students to deliver Holocaust education, which is so important not just for our Jewish community in South Australia but as a moral obligation for us to continue telling the stories of the Holocaust.

People like Andrew Steiner, an Adelaide artist and Holocaust survivor who has been telling his story and the story of the Holocaust to Adelaide school students for 30 years, are not going to be with us forever so, at this moment in time, it has never been more important to have a facility such as the Holocaust Museum established, as we launched it last night.

I appreciated the Deputy Premier being there. I was sitting next to her. It was an emotional evening. It was MC'd very well by Councillor Greg Mackie, underlining the role that the History Trust played. The South Australian government contributed $100,000 to the development of education programs and support for infrastructure through the education department and the History Trust.

James Stevens, the member for Sturt, not so long ago came to see me, in my role of education minister, to talk about how he was keen to lobby the federal government for more support. Along with the Premier, I supported him in that endeavour. Josh Frydenberg, the federal Treasurer, just recently visited the museum, which was almost complete. I thought it was in pretty good nick when we were visiting a few weeks ago. It is going to be delivering an excellent experience for our young people from day one.

I will tell you what: the announcement of $2.5 million that the commonwealth has put in is going to enhance that facility so much in the years ahead. Schools will be engaged in the program and we will deliver further curriculum supports. We will continue to support our schools, so that they can give that program to their students so they can be exposed to education about the Holocaust in the years ahead.

This is a tremendous development and commendations to Nicola Zuckerman and her board, all the contributions from donors and philanthropists and especially Andrew Steiner OAM, the man whose idea has become a reality now and will into the future have an amazing impact on our community.

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