It emerged that the most effective collaboration between business and the community would be providing support to primary and secondary schools and teachers. Education, therefore, became the initial focus.

Key reasons

• Substantial economic costs are associated with young Australians leaving school early, as well as costs to the individual and the community
• Crisis in basic literacy skills of young people: almost one-third of 15-year olds need to substantially improve their literacy skills
• Young people who lack basic literacy and numeracy skills face greater challenges in the modern workplace
• Future skills shortages are likely to affect Australian competitiveness.

Role of business

Businesses can use their resources to work directly with schools to:

• Help improve training and literacy levels
• Support innovation and enterprise
• Provide mentors for students
• Increase awareness of business within the schools
• Broaden opportunities for students.

Focussing on those schools and students that will benefit most from these initiatives makes it possible for the ABCN to help in the development of our future workforce and, potentially, build more sustainable communities.

'It's been good to see a broader perspective and made me feel more strongly that this country could get so much out of more investment in education.' Business member

Pilot programs

In 2005, their first year, ABCN developed and delivered a series of pilot programs that focus on education. The pilot program gave ABCN the opportunity to test and refine key intervention areas and to develop relationships and working partnerships with key stakeholders. The success of these pilots has resulted in the expansion of the programs to over 30 schools and 23 member companies.

The programs were chosen with two criteria in mind:

1. The ability for business to utilise expertise and resources to add value to the experience of students and teachers.
2. Provide hands-on opportunities for business to engage with students and teachers and broaden their awareness around education and social disadvantage.

Why Southwest Sydney schools?

Southwest Sydney has a high proportion of schools that fall within the NSW Department of Education's Priority Schools Funding Program (PSFP). This program is for schools facing a significant range of challenges e.g. a majority of students from Non-English Speaking Backgrounds (NESB), high concentrations of refugees and high unemployment. This led ABCN to focus its initial activity in this region.

ABCN expansion

ABCN worked closely with the NSW Department of Education and Training, WA Department of Education and Training and QLD Department of Education, Training and the Arts to select the schools that participate in the programs:

• 12 schools in 2005
• 20 schools in 2006
• more than 30 in 2007

GOALS was piloted at one high school in 2005, expanded to five schools in 2006 and fifteen in 2007 (eleven in NSW, three in WA and one in QLD).