This year’s VET Development Centre’s VET National Teaching & Learning Conference was held in-person at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre on the 14th-15th of August.

Thank you to all those who attended, it was wonderful for the team at the VDC to deliver another sold out event, 20 years after we commenced operations. As CEO, Martin Powell pointed out in his opening remarks – the VDC is proud to have delivered 4,500 professional development programs to more than 110,000 people over the past decade.

If you missed the conference this year – here is some of what delegates learned:

  • CEO of the Victorian Skills Authority, Craig Robertson, opened the conference on behalf of the Minister for Skills and TAFE, the Hon Gayle Tierney. His address was about focussing VET on “what matters”, preparing students for the future and delivering what industry needs – and gave the great description of how even something as simple as fireworks have been upended by technology – with drones now delivering incredible light shows during public events and celebrations.
  • Mike Rolls, a leading authority on resilience, inspired delegates with his life story and his evidence-based insights into moving beyond responding to adversity with a “why me?” and instead embracing the power of “what’s next?”
  • Andrew Douch, biology teacher and AI enthusiast, gave conference delegates great insights into how AI can support student learning but also emphasised the importance of human interactions: “What do you bring to the classroom that ChatGPT can’t?”
  • Tim Cope inspired delegates with his life experience of “learning to rush slowly” – through his travel adventures and capturing them in text and on film. His three year journey from Mongolia to Hungary, originally planned to take just 18 months, gave many delegates a lot to think about – and the challenges they and their students face.
  • Fiori Giovanni’s story demonstrated to educators the profound resilience and determination that learners can bring, even when they face extraordinary hardship. Her journey from child bride and child soldier to global entrepreneur highlights the transformative power of education, self-belief, and opportunities for growth.
  • The team at Audit Express helped delegates reflect on the importance of inclusive VET, how providers can embed diversity, equity and inclusion into their practices, and why this is important beyond simply the compliance rationale (i.e. the changes requiring this in the Revised Standards for RTOs).
  • VDC News’ ghostwriter (Claire Field) spoke about the changing world of work, and recent VET reforms allowing the sector to respond to these changes – including VET qualifications reform and the recent pronouncement from ASQA for RTOs to change what they teach where industry is using AI tools that are not reflected in “pre-generative AI” training packages.
  • Toby George Jones gave an excellent overview of the range of AI tools available for educators to use at work and at home. He pointed out that “it takes time to adopt AI” and that we should use the word “yet” when we talk about what AI currently cannot do, i.e. it is a fast changing technology offering lots of support for all workers including VET professionals.
  • A panel of skills champions, Sebastian Battista, Felix McPhail, and Gemma Scott shared insights from their training experiences and emphasised to delegates the importance of great teachers and the difference they make to their students and their students’ future careers.
  • The closing keynote session was a warm hearted, engaging and hilarious interaction from Lisa McInnes-Smith who drew on her psychology background to offer practical insights and demonstrations to delegates on how to engage and communicate with their students, all whilst throwing chocolates at the audience!

The highlight of the conference (for your ghostwriter) was Federation University’s Dr Adam Bignold (Victorian teacher/trainer of the year) who reflected on his deep love of teaching in VET rather than in higher education, despite the lower pay and the lack of recognition of higher education qualifications in the VET system.

He explained how and why he made a number of changes to his VET teaching to better meet the needs of his students. He introduced flexible class schedules – daytime sessions from 10am to 3pm to accommodate school and childcare commitments, as well as evening classes. These changes doubled female enrolments.

Additional innovations included flexible assessment deadlines, replacing long-form written assignments with short, practical tasks aligned with industry input, and even allowing students to use Google during exams to reflect real-world practices where knowledge changes rapidly. Peer discussion forums and student work-sharing created further engagement, while successes such as winning a global hacking competition and strengthening industry partnerships demonstrated the effectiveness of these approaches.

Collectively these changes significantly increased participation among neurodivergent learners, with attendance rising to 35% compared to 10% across the Regional Universities Network. Retention rates also improved across all demographics. And importantly – widening access and adapting learning pathways did not mean lowering academic standards, but rather created more inclusive and industry-relevant ways of teaching and learning.

The conference was about more than just the keynotes and panel discussions though. In addition to the opportunity to network with other professionals, the conference also included a number of hands-on workshops. A summary of what was discussed in the workshops will be included in the next edition of VDC News.

The VDC also thanks the conference MC, Chemène Sinson, and all of the conference sponsors – we could not do it without you.

And finally, thank you to our 2025 VET National Teaching & Learning Conference sponsors. Your generous support makes it possible for VDC to deliver such a tailored and high-quality program.