Executive+Summary+008

If rural and regional areas are to sustain and grow their populations, they need to develop a range of successful businesses which will assist the communities drought proof their way of life.

TAFE NSW Riverina institute, in partnership with local business is implementing a pilot service to students at Wagga Wagga Campus and our Primary Industries Centre in Wagga Wagga.

The new service will provide personalised learning to any students or 2007 graduate from these campuses wishing to start or further develop a small business. TAFE students/graduates are particularly well placed to begin new businesses. They are highly skilled, often bringing a maturity of work experience, and they are focused on their intention of a new business. The learning is aimed at guiding the students through the various steps necessary to establish/enhance their business and significantly support long term success. The plan is to develop and test a model that works and can be replicated not only across the Institute but across all other Institutes.

The business mentor will work in partnership with our Business Services Department in Wagga Wagga to identify existing skills, skill gaps and develop strategies to address the gaps. Delivery will be around, not a virtual exercise, but a real life attempt to start/enhance their own business. The competencies delivered will be taken from the Business Services Training Package and will depend on the skills and needs of the student. In line with the recent NCVER research we are delivering personalised learning using a business mentor and connecting the student with a network of experienced business operators in the region. The students in the pilot will also have access to the toolbox currently under development by Kangan Batman TAFE: Certificate 111 in Micro Business Operations. The Project Manager and Riverina Institute’s Head of Studies BA&IT are represented on the Reference Group for the toolbox project.

Our aim is to develop a transportable model for delivering this service so that we can scale it for all students in Riverina Institute and to other TAFEs/RTOs in Australia.

An essential part of the model will be the use of new technologies to: • provide the service to remote students • allow students accessing the service to network among themselves • provide a portal for communication and resource sharing between the business mentor and the students.