RPFF Launch $500k Regional project at RMIT University at Hamilton

RPFF, RMIT University at Hamilto

Victorian Minister for Higher Education and Skills, Peter Hall, has travelled to RMIT University at Hamilton to announce one of the successful grants in Round Two of the Regional Partnerships Facilitation Fund (RPFF).

RMIT Hamilton, together with project partners South West TAFE, the Southern Grampians Shire and the Glenelg and Southern Grampians Local Learning and Employment Network have received a RPFF grant for a project aiming to deepen educational partnerships in the region with a total project value of $524,000.

RMIT Senior Manager, Dr Kaye Scholfield, said Department of Education and Early Childhood Development figures showed only 39 per cent of regional students completing Year 12 in 2011 enrolled in university the following year.

“This is significantly lower than the 57 per cent of metropolitan students that went to university after completing school,” Dr Scholfield said.

“We need to think more creatively about tertiary education outside our big cities and this needs to include new collaboration arrangements between universities, TAFEs and other providers.”

The two-year project aims to establish a Southern Grampians Co-operative Learning and Business Incubator, in order to develop and deepen long-lasting educational partnerships, providing pathways and boosting qualifications and attainment in the region.

The project will deliver self-sustaining strategies to address the needs of the labour market and of disengaged learners in a rural environment.

Initiatives will include the development of new study modes in health, education, logistics and multimedia that match the local economy and workforce.

The RPFF is a competitive grant fund established by the Victorian Government to support increased alliances between higher education institutions and vocational education and training organisations.

The grants support providers to adopt new models that deliver improved access to higher education for Victorians living in rural and regional areas and are supported through the $1 billion Regional Growth Fund.