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An artist’ s impression of the new precinct. Photo: UOW
UOW health precinct
The precinct will integrate research and teaching environments with health and aged care facilities.
The University of Wollongong’ s new Health and Wellbeing Precinct will include Australia’ s first patient-centred health clinic to offer aged care, retirement living, research facilities and teaching programs.
Recently released details about the plan confirmed that Lendlease would lead the project, with construction to commence in 2020.
Vice-chancellor Paul Wellings said the facility was expected to be operational by 2022.
“ The development of the Health and Wellbeing Precinct is a major initiative for the university that will bring significant benefits to the Illawarra community and beyond,” he said.
It will create a space where medical professionals sit alongside students, researchers and academics, and where aged care centres sit alongside state-of-the-art rehabilitation services; where GPs will work side-by-side with dietitians, dentists and psychologists.
“ Lendlease provided the most comprehensive development concept and vision for the Health and Wellbeing Precinct, which best meets UOW’ s vision to advance education, research, community engagement and employment opportunities for graduates.”
The new precinct is being designed to integrate research and teaching environments with non-surgical healthcare and aged care facilities, and will be used to train healthcare professionals and deliver new models of patient-centred care.
The overall development represents a $ 500 million investment in the Illawarra, with stage one to account for $ 200 – 250 million. It is anticipated the facility will create more than 2000 jobs and generate more than $ 6 million in annual economic benefits to the public through aged care and healthcare services.
Deputy vice-chancellor( health and communities) Professor Alison Jones said the precinct would provide new research and teaching opportunities in nursing, nutrition, rehabilitation, psychology and aged care support.
“ The precinct will have a strong focus on teaching and research, which will see research translated into practice to improve patient experience and outcomes,” she said.
“ It will enhance our ability to train the health workforce of the future to deliver patient-centred models of care within an interdisciplinary model.”
Stage one of the project will include teaching facilities, a community health clinic, a 108-bed residential aged care facility, 199 independent retirement living units, a childcare centre, retail facilities and additional parking.
Lendlease intends to partner with a local aged care provider for the project. ■
Focus on changing VET landscape
A 20-year interactive snapshot of VET training is set to satisfy the sector’ s“ huge appetite for historical cross-jurisdictional information”.
In an Australian first, the National Centre for Vocational Education Research( NCVER) has released an interactive timeline of Australia’ s VET policies, programs and initiatives over the past two decades.
The 20-year snapshot of the nation’ s vocational training history was developed to lend an“ economic context” to the changing VET landscape.
Managing director Dr Craig Fowler said the Timeline of Australian VET Policy Initiatives 1998-2017 highlighted the key events that may have influenced VET enrolments and the completion rates of apprenticeships and traineeships from 1998 onward.
“ There’ s a huge appetite for historical cross-jurisdictional information when it comes to VET, especially given how legislation and policy can differ between states and territories,” he said.
“ We’ ve created the timeline to allow the VET sector quick and easy access to valuable information that may otherwise be time consuming to track down and compare.
“ By providing a history of VET reforms across jurisdictions, the new interactive timeline has the potential to lend economic and policy context for trends in VET data and other research findings.
“ This will assist both government and VET researchers in particular to determine if policy reforms have had an impact over the years.”
Fowler said industry and training providers could use the tool to make comparisons with their own data.
The timeline is part of the first stage of the VET Knowledge Bank initiative, with further stages to be released later this year.
The Knowledge Bank will be a reference source of information about the VET system in Australia, and will include products such as Getting to Know VET in Australia, VET Governance, History of VET, and Landmark Documents.
This work was produced by NCVER on behalf of the Australian government and state and territory governments, with funding provided through the Australian Government Department of Education and Training. ■
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