2025 Conference

ACAL and VALBEC have joined forces to bring you Inclusion, Empowerment, Employment: Literacies for a dynamic future, our 2025 conference to be held on September 4 and 5.

Explore the role of literacy in empowering adults, fostering inclusion, and increasing wellbeing in a range of contexts – personal, community, study and work.

Explore the website and consider submitting an application to present: https://acal.edu.au/wp/25conf-home/

We are looking forward to seeing you there!

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VALBEC (Victorian Adult Literacy and Basic Education Council) is offering two Professional Learning Sessions this August 2025.

Session 1 - Snapshot of the 22688VIC-22692VIC Certificates in General Education for Adults by Nadia Casarotto

A VALBEC (Victorian Adult Literacy and Basic Educational Council) Professional Learning session presented by Nadia Casarotto.

This session will provide an overview of the recently reaccredited 22688VIC-22692VIC Certificates in General Education for Adults. It will cover:

• Changes in structure/content of the course document
• Changes in structure/content of units of competency
• Emerging issues and specific changes
• CGEA Implementation Guide

Nadia Casarotto is part of the Service Industries Curriculum Maintenance Manager team based at Victoria University. In this role, she is involved in the maintenance and monitoring of Crown Copyright courses including the CGEA and the EAL (English as an Additional Language) Framework as well as a number of other courses on behalf of the copyright owner.

We look forward to seeing you there.

VALBEC PL Forums Team

Who: Nadia Casarotto
When: Thursday 7^th August 2025, 5.30-6.30 pm AEST
Where: Zoom
Cost: VALBEC Members Free; non-Members $10

Registration

Session 2 - Let's Talk Numeracy by Tina Berghella 

A VALBEC (Victorian Adult Literacy and Basic Educational Council) Professional Learning session presented by Tina Berghella.

This practical, example-rich professional development session explores how numeracy is embedded in everyday oral language — and how we can use it to strengthen adult learner numeracy skills.

We’ll look beyond equations and worksheets to focus on the oral communication that surrounds numeracy: the language of estimation, comparison, measurement, and reasoning. From making a cup of coffee to commenting on the weather, real-life conversations offer powerful opportunities to build confidence and capability in numeracy.

Drawing on ACSF indicators .09 and .11, we will:

• Unpack the difference between maths and numeracy
• Identify mathematical information and reasoning in oral texts
• Explore how everyday talk supports adult learning
• Discuss practical strategies and examples for the classroom

This session will help you tune into the numeracy hiding in plain sight — and give you new tools for teaching it.

Tina Berghella is the Director of Oggi Consulting, a business formed in 1998 to provide quality vocational education and training consulting services. Tina has a background in manufacturing and project management and is an experienced VET researcher. She has worked on various LLN projects, including the recent CGEA review, and has a particular interest in workplace numeracy.

Her numeracy related publications include Numeracy by Measure, Numeracy in Focus, Numeracy in Practice and the NCVER report, Seeking the N in LLN. Tina is a former member of Australian Government’s Foundation Skills Community of Practice and the Australian Government’s Language, Literacy, Numeracy and Digital (LLND) Skills Quality Assurance Expert Panel.

We look forward to seeing you there.

VALBEC PL Forums Team

Who: Tina Berghella 
When: Thursday 21^st August 2025, 5.30-6.30 pm AEST
Where: Zoom
Cost: VALBEC Members Free; non-Members $10

Registration