Educating professionals to meet the future needs of inland Australia will be the focus of a meeting to be held at Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Bathurst Campus on Tuesday 8 and Wednesday 9 July, hosted by the University’s Education for Practice Institute.

 

Leading international academics will meet with senior CSU academics and educational leaders to investigate how emerging trends in professional education, especially ‘communities of practice’, could enhance CSU courses.

 

A ‘community of practice’ is where a group involved in a common work area, for example, a farming community or a hospital intensive care unit, work together in the pursuit of common goals and outcomes, in this case for the provision of quality education to inland Australia.

 

CSU Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Ian Goulter, and other key University personnel will have discussions over two days with Dr Etienne Wenger from the United States of America, an international consultant and author of key texts on ‘communities of practice’, and Professor Pam Shakespeare and Associate Professor Steve Hutchinson from the Practice-Based Professional Learning Centre at the Open University in the United Kingdom.

 

Professor Goulter said he was very pleased to have three distinguished colleagues contribute to enhancing practice-based education in CSU’s curricula.

 

“CSU prides itself on providing practical, employment focused courses that ensure our students graduate with the skills required to step confidently into new employment opportunities,” Professor Goulter said.

 

“By incorporating appropriate aspects from such concepts as ‘communities of practice’ into our curricula, CSU will maintain its position at the forefront of education for the professions in Australia.”

 

Education for the professions is major focus at CSU. Over 80 per cent of CSU undergraduate programs have a professional practice component. Professor Goulter feels this plays a large part in the fact that over 83 per cent of CSU’s graduates find employment soon after finishing their degree.

 

The theme of the two-day meeting is ‘Practice-based professional learning: investigating perspectives from social learning theory’.