1221 Australia: Joint technical venture a model of collaborative innovation
austraLasia 1221

Australia: Joint technical venture a model of collaborative innovation

MELBOURNE: 2 August 2005 --  St. Joseph's College, at the foothills of Melbourne's Dandenong Ranges, and long a model of boys' education in the Salesian tradition, has gained Government and Catholic Education support in setting up a second school within its existing campus.  In a joint application with a local Government College at Ringwood, St Joseph's has been given a grant amounting to  AUD 3,000,000 to set up what will be known as Knox Technical Training Centre on its existing campus.
    The achievement is spectacular in the light of the history of technical education in this area.  Some ten years ago the Government closed down many technical schools including one which abutted the St. Joseph's College grounds.  By that stage the Fertnree Gully State school, as it was known, with poor funding and sinking morale had even become a problem for its neighbouring St. Joseph's, with bands of unruly young men and women who should have been in class but were not, often massing on the 'borders', so to speak!  There was the occasional 'sorting out' between the two groups, an altogether undesirable situation.
    Now there has been a complete reversal, symbolised in the joint application by a Catholic and Governemnt College and full Federal Government funding as part of the 'Australian Techncial College' programme.
    KTTC will be separate from St. Joseph's, though on the same campus.  All St. Joseph's students will have access for technology classes.  Courses offered will be in electronics, cabinet making and various building trades.  The Centre will offer classes to students from local schools as well as St. Joseph's.  Both Government and Catholic partners in this venture recognise that KTTC will enhance St. Joseph's with its physical resources, while the culture of St. Joseph's, with its emphasis on good relationships and co-responsibility, will offer much to KTTC.
    At the beginning of this year St. Joseph's also created a separate Year 9 campus, called Valdocco, on its extensive grounds.  Now St Joseph becomes a two-school, multi-campus College.

VOCABULARY
abut: joined at one ned, make physical contact with
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