News

The Diploma of Applied Blockchain at TAFE Queensland is now eligible for JobTrainer funding, meaning any Queensland resident looking to develop new skills can do so for only $145.

General Manager of TAFE Queensland on the Gold Coast, Karen Dickinson said she is thrilled that this course will now be more accessible to students.

“This training is proudly delivered by TAFE Queensland under the joint State and Federal JobTrainer funding. This diploma isn’t just a Blockchain course, we are reimagining the way business should be done and making life easier.”

Griffith University’s Majed Abuseif has won the People's Choice Award for his Smart Planter Box at the Design Innovation Competition in the United Kingdom.

The design competition is open to both concept projects, as well as realised projects by young design and tech professionals worldwide with the aim of facilitating innovation by challenging the traditional set up of an industry or business through a new method, creative solution or strategy.

The PhD student has been developing his superior green technology concept over the past 2 years and thanked his supervisors Professor Karine Dupre and green infrastructure specialist Ruby Michael, both of Griffith University, for their support of the project.

For almost 20 years BROWNS English Language School has been teaching international students in Brisbane and on the Gold Coast. With an alumnus of more than 35,000 students BROWNS is the largest English Language school in Queensland, winning many export awards through their world-class English language education, so it was a surprise to many that BROWNS was recently acquired by professional services training specialist Monarch Institute.

Melbourne based Monarch Institute is one of Australia’s largest family-owned professional service training organisations. The company’s CEO Nick Chapman says the move is a natural strategic fit as both brands share the same values in providing a high quality and highly regarded student experience embedded within innovative technology.

The Australian Government’s decision to reopen our international borders in late 2021 was a welcome relief for the education sector, particularly our international students who have been patiently and, in many cases, exasperatingly waiting for their opportunity to finally commence their studies onshore.

There are many thousands yet to make their journey, but some of the lucky few who were the first to arrive on the Gold Coast have kindly shared their insights into their experiences of the pandemic and their frustrations of not being able to study here.

Eight Gold Coast state high schools have joined together to share resources and teaching expertise to deliver free after-hours online masterclasses to Year 12 ATAR students this year.

The pilot project, titled Beyond the School Gates, will allow any student studying mathematics methods, chemistry or physics to access high level academic virtual tutoring with subject experts each week over a nine-month trial period.

The project is an initiative of the Gold Coast Secondary Principals’ Alliance, jointly funded by Study Gold Coast’s Education Vision Project Fund, and will culminate with project partner Griffith University’s Science On The Go team delivering free school holiday consolidation workshops during the June/July school holidays.

Five Gold Coast students were recently acknowledged for their outstanding achievements and their impact on our city at the Gold Coast Student Excellence Awards.

Now in their third year, the Awards were established to recognise the valuable contributions that students make to the wider benefit of our community and how they enrich the cultural fabric of our lives. The award categories are: Championing Diversity, Fostering the Creative Arts, Protecting Our Environment, Enhancing Our Communities and Peer to Peer Support.

This year’s winners covered a broad scope of achievements, from building social and public speaking skills through drama to working with disabled children and a raft of initiatives advocating for gender equality.

Ryan Thwaite of the Gold Coast has taken out Australia’s top competition for high school filmmakers with an intriguing abstract animation.  The Year 12 student from Palm Beach Currumbin State High won the top prize at the 2021 Bond University Film & Television Awards, or BUFTA, at an awards ceremony on November 20. 

Mr Thwaite secured a full scholarship to study a Bachelor of Film and Television at Bond with his short film Veronica. The film is a dark and brooding animation with a dramatic monotone colour palette and striking sound effects that reinforce the uneasy sense of dread. 

Ryan’s film won the animation, directing, sound and best Gold Coast filmmaking categories as well as going on to take out the supreme prize. and he was amazed by his success. 

Mudgeeraba Creek State School’s science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) specialist and primary teacher, Megan Hayes has received the Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Primary Schools, in the 2021 Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science. Mrs Hayes is recognised for her outstanding work in championing the importance of STEM education for primary children, both in her community and at a national level.

As an innovative educator with more than 30 years’ teaching experience, Megan Hayes philosophy is to build the connection between science and its application in the real world for her students. She inspires students to think critically, take risks and become ‘agents of change’ for the future.

Tertiary education provides students with many things – career specific knowledge, technical skills, problem solving capabilities and personal growth among them, but one area not often addressed is the soft skills that make us better professionals in our chosen field. That’s why Study Gold Coast developed Kickstart –  a program specifically designed to provide graduates with practical workplace skills to build their effectiveness within their organisation.

Throughout the Kickstart Program participants receive varied training through experiential learning; practical and interactive workshops; as well as coaching from executive and career co-facilitators with mentoring through the completion of a significant project.

This year was the second time Kickstart had been run, with 20 participants representing 15 employers taking part in the program. Participants delivered their final presentations to an enthusiastic audience this week, with their employers proudly looking on. Employees and their employers were universally effusive in their praise for the program, with all parties recognising the mutual benefits from the experience.  

Josh Apanui’s first contact with the justice system was as an offender. But now, fuelled by a desire to give back to his community and to break down barriers for Australia’s Indigenous people, the Gold Coast man finds himself on the other side of the law, as a First Nations Legal Executive with the Queensland Law Society. 

Josh is one of three inaugural recipients of Bond University’s Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice (GDLP) Indigenous Scholarship. The scholarship covers all tuition costs for the online GDLP for an indigenous student who has completed either a Bachelor of Laws or a Juris Doctor degree, and is seeking admission as a legal practitioner.