It is well known and a never contested fact that our workforce in adult LLN delivery is aging and diminishing. There seems to be nothing happening to address this shortage on a national level. Distressingly, one of two courses available to people wishing to work in the accredited space in our sector is looking down the barrel of closure.
The Vice Chancellor of UTS is proposing to cut 400 staff as well as subjects and programs from the university. The Vice-Chancellor is claiming that these cuts are necessary to address a $100 million deficit in the university’s deficit: a claim that has not been substantiated by sufficient evidence.
The Vice Chancellor has now announced that intake of new students in the TESOL and Applied Linguistics courses, including the newly accredited Graduate Diploma in Teaching in Adult Literacy, Numeracy and English as an Additional Language Education will be suspended for Autumn 2026. While he has not said that these courses will be discontinued, past experience suggests that when intake is suspended in a course, that course is discontinued. This means we have to vigorously and immediately resist the suspension of intake. We need your support for that.
Please consider taking action! Send an email to vice-chancellor Professor Andrew Parfittcellor to let him know that staff and program cuts in our field would severely damage UTS’s reputation as a reliable partner in the education of the future workforce and research-informed innovation in a critical Australian and international industry. Please would you email vice-chancellor Professor Andrew Parfitt at
Andrew.Parfitt@uts.edu.au, marking it Personal and Confidential (to ensure it reaches him personally) and seek his response.
It is of critical importance that we support our UTS colleagues so we can continue to strengthen the field and build the field that we care so deeply about. Please encourage other teachers to write too. We need all the help we can get to continue UTS's work in developing the adult LLN workforce, and teachers more generally.
Happy September! We are just coming up for air again after attending and participating in ACAL’s annual conference. Each year the ACAL conference is held in a different state, with the local council of adult literacy (CAL) hosting. The conference was very well attended, in fact there was even a wait list! Presentations covered diverse topics including dyslexia, trauma informed education, policy changes, numeracy topics and there were also poster presentations for the first time. Highlights for me included the strong sense of camaraderie and the palpable delight in delegates. There are always areas that we can improve in and it’s important to reflect on what worked well and what didn’t - but overall I’m giving us a 9.75/10! Thanks to the indefatiguable Don Macdowell and Estelle O’Callaghan for the administration feats and to the organising committee and to Jo Medlin, ACAL president who has extraordinary energy and whose calm and steady hand led the ACAL conference to the success that it was.
Linno Rhodes, VALBEC President
VALBEC Membership
You can join or renew online.
https://valbec.org.au/membership/
If you join in August, September or October, deduct 50%. Renewal falls due the following February.
Members receive:
- Fine Print two times a year – a high quality journal for discussion and debate about good practice, theory and policy issues. Feedback and contributions are actively sought from members about content and issues.
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eVALBEC – our e-mail communication keeping members informed of professional development activities, general committee activities and more up to date policy changes.
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Discounts for the Annual Conference and other VALBEC statewide professional development.
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Issues-based forums.
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Focus on significant policy issues impacting on the field.
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Free numeracy resources.
Stay tuned for news about a Numeracy Showcase - Please save the date - November 28, for an in-person one day conference style event.
ESL Brains
Access a range of lesson plans and resources
Mozilla Foundation
Foundation skills incorporating Digital skills resources
https://www.mozillafoundation.org/en/initiatives/web-literacy/
We hope you are enjoying reading your copy of issue 1, 2025 - Fine Print. Next issue will be choc-a-block full of conference presentations, Learn Local awards and other top of the range news items.
September 21st - Clean Up Day
The Learn Local sector has recently been invited to contribute to a review of the proposed new model for ACFE pre-accredited training, known as Stronger by Design (SbD) by completing a survey.
Learn Locals have been advised that for 2026, delivery will remain a combination of the 2013 Pre-accredited Quality Framework (PQF 2013), PQF+ and SbD as the transition to the new SbD model progresses.
Learn Locals have recently undertaken a re-registration process for two years to December 2027.
The new round of Expression of Interest for 2026 pre-accredited program delivery hours opened on 27th August and closes on 17th September.
Zoe Repse/Lambreas brings extensive experience across state and private schools, at primary and secondary levels, as well as in the tertiary sector with AMES, Chisholm Institute, and Swinburne University of Technology-TAFE.
Since commencing her career in education in 1979, Zoe has remained deeply committed to her vocation. She values the opportunity to learn from her students and demonstrates a genuine understanding of their literacy journeys and/or migrant experiences. Dedicated to encouraging learners to engage with their communities and develop a strong sense of belonging, she strives to create inclusive, healthy, safe, and supportive learning environments and opportunities to engage outside the classroom.
In addition to her teaching, Zoe has a passion for writing and has dedicated more than three decades to compiling vivid anecdotes, which culminated in the publication of her novels A Walk in My Skin and Speak English Like Australians! She is also the author of four textbooks in the series Speak English Like Australians: English Skills – Speak, Read, Write; each accompanied by exercises and answers.
Zoe’s creative contributions extend to digital media, where she actively produces pronunciation and listening videos on her YouTube channel, Zoe Lambreas. These include narrations of 32 chapters from the novel Speak English Like Australians! designed to support literacy development, help migrant learners, and individuals with dyslexia.
Currently, Zoe is seeking to give back to the sector she is deeply committed to via her voluntary board membership on the VALBEC committee. Since 1978, VALBEC has played a vital role in representing adult literacy, numeracy, and basic education in Victoria, and Zoe’s desire is to contribute to its ongoing impact.
eVALBEC
eVALBEC is the monthly electronic newsletter of (VALBEC) the Victorian Adult Literacy and Basic Education Council and is sent to about 1000 practitioners on the first of each month (other than January). It is also available in the ‘News’ section of our web site
Disclaimer:
The activities, goods and services mentioned in eVALBEC are not endorsed by Valbec in any way. People should make their own judgment about the suitability of each item.
How to submit items: https://www.valbec.org.au/evalbec