Canberra’s northside is now home to a new Future Skills Academy, based at the University of Canberra Senior Secondary College Lake Ginninderra.
This new hub for the Academy forms part of a $5.7 million ACT Government 2018-19 Budget commitment to build on Canberra’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) capability and make these subjects more accessible to all students.
In a media statement, ACT Minister for Education, Yvette Berry, said the Academy provides access to high quality facilities where both students and teachers can develop skills that are transferrable to many of the fastest growing occupations.
Building on the model already established with Mungga-iri Jingee in Tuggeranong, this new Academy of Future Skills hub will be named ‘Dhawura Ngadjung’ – Ngunnawal words meaning earth and water.
Ms Berry said that together with Mungga-iri Jingee, meaning touch the stars, the two Academies recognise that Australia was and is Aboriginal land.
She said the ACT Government is investing in these skills-based learning spaces to demonstrate their commitment to building skills for future jobs.
They also employ specialist teachers who work from the Academy and in schools all over Canberra.
Ms Berry said the Future Skills Academy is a key deliverable of the Future of Education Strategy, which recognises students as individuals and emphasises the creation of learning environments with students at the centre as well as the importance of learning for future jobs that don’t yet exist.
This new facility and the work across these important education subjects supports students in the ACT to tread their own path based on their developing interests, knowledge and skills.
Furthering their investment in skills-based learning, this year a $200,000 Girls in STEM grant program was created, with 17 grant recipients – both schools and individual students – announced at the end of June.
These grants are being administered by the ACT Future Skills Academy. The Academy is a key ACT Government initiative that aims to build capability in science, technology, engineering and mathematics and make STEM more accessible to all students.
