Lithgow TAFE’s Nicola Connon to bring new insight from overseas

The tour was part of a 2018 Premier’s Teacher Scholarship.

As a teacher in foundation skills, which encompasses careers and employment education, Aboriginal language and English as a second language sector, Ms Connon has a particular interest in resilience and the ways in which teachers and students can use strategies to tackle barriers to learning.  

Ms Connon said she found plenty of ideas and, most importantly, practical examples of ways that other learning institutions had worked to improve student outcomes by encouraging wellbeing. 

“At the colleges I visited, I was seeing what programs were on offer to young people to support them through study and onto careers,” she said. 

Basing herself in London, many colleges were only a train ride away, as were specialist courses in wellbeing and resilience strategy. 

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Ms Connon said she was particularly struck by words from Hackney New City College mental health education coordinator John McClean who stated that education makes a difference for mental wellbeing, as it gave students “meaning and purpose”. 

Ms Connon was inspired by hands-on approaches in centres which had faced similar problems to Lithgow, including high youth unemployment and changing employment opportunities. 

As part of her scholarship, Ms Connon will be writing a report on her experience and the practical applications for her findings across TAFE NSW. 

One of the ideas she found inspiring during her visit were ‘5 to Thrive’, which tasked students to come up with five things that contributed to their all-around wellbeing. 

Another was the idea of a ‘public living room’ on campus.

Ms Connon was already plotting out a likely spot in Lithgow TAFE’s new administration building for this kind of space, which would aim to allow students to mingle and complete mindfulness activites in a safe, welcoming area.