Faces of Adult Learners' Week 2002
The people featured on the Adult Learners' Week 2002 campaign posters and in the television and radio advertisements were real learners. Discover their stories below.
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Jack - A farmer with numerous strings to his bow
Never getting to complete Year 12 has been a spur for Jack to "continue learning and enjoy the challenge." Like many of his generation the 66 year old was forced to leave boarding school early to return to help on the family farm.
Since then the father of three has been fully occupied, playing violin with a number of bands, treading the boards in local theatre productions, working with the local foreshore committee and travelling overseas on various study tours - this includes China, North America, Canada, Argentina and Brazil.
His drive to be involved in varied projects is largely based upon his leaving school before he was ready.
"It was a big turning point in my life… I think I was disappointed that I had to leave. Even though I wasn't a brilliant student, I was still focused on getting an education… I was a person who enjoyed learning and still do," he said.
He tried his hand at a number of different careers, with 1978 a pivotal date as he moved away from day-to-day farming. At 43 he decided to hand the property over to a share-farmer and undertake a complete change in employment.
From handling 120 milkers he became one of sixty people appointed by the Victorian State government to become a Community Education Officer. For the next nine years he spent his time working with schools in the Leongatha area "encouraging people to get involved in education."
This thirst for wider experiences continued when at 52 he left community education to take on an administrative role, at the Gippsland campus of Monash University for three days a week and the remaining days with the Adult, Community and Further Education Department.
This went on until he retired in 1994, although he hasn't exactly put up his feet to watch life pass by. Jack is building a house at Inverloch in partnership with his wife Rhyl, a retired schoolteacher, while again working the farm.
If this isn't enough he is playing violin in the "Beady Eyes" Bushband which also comprises a teacher, farm manager and psychologist. The four play throughout the South Gippsland area and have ventured into Melbourne's outer suburbs performing Australian and Irish songs.
His passion for music extends to performing in a jazz duo while also finding time to act in the local theatre. His violin playing, which began in primary school, had been on hold for many years while his energies were channeled into playing football, working and bringing up the family.
The urge to again play the violin was helped along when he attended some workshops staged in Leongatha by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
"The opportunities for personal development are everywhere if you want to seek them out. Through personal development you become a happier person and feel a bit more fulfilled. Sitting down watching television can be a waste of time," he argues.
Phil - Beating the drum gets the message across
Citing enthusiasm as the main reason Ringo Starr won the gig with the Beatles, is one way in which a greying 51 year old encourages high school students to reconsider their plans to leave school early.
Former advertising man and sometime musician Phil is on to his fifth career, following a "wake up" call in 1991, when he was made redundant at the age of 41. He now runs life skills workshops in conjunction with Victorian secondary schools encouraging young students to remain till the end of high school, and to help prepare them for work if they do take the decision to leave school.
Having left school himself in 4th form, Phil is keen that the kids he teaches are sure that leaving early is the best option. He decided in the seventies to head back to school and gain the Higher School Certificate, now called the VCE.
He then went on to study advertising at RMIT, and to initially apply the qualifications to jobs at the "Age" and "Melbourne Herald" newspapers.
"I was rocking along and I thought I was a hot shot," he says, only for it to come to a shuddering halt when as General Manager of an equipment hire firm he was told he was surplus to requirements.
Determined that "I wouldn't let the recession beat me," he undertook a variety of courses to "stimulate the mind." He has never stopped learning.
During the same period he underwent his own "seachange", which included moving to the Victorian seaside town of Inverloch with his wife and family.
This led him to study at the Central Gippsland TAFE where he was sponsored by the South Gippsland Adult and Community Education and emerged with a Certificate in Workplace Training Level 4.
At first this saw him working in colleges lecturing in media, communication skills and hospitality prior to taking on the work in the region's secondary schools.
His charges are those regarded as most "at risk", who want to leave
school early, often without any idea of what to do next.
If Phil persuades them to stay on the former Beatle is held up as an example,
not for his scholastic endeavours, but for his enthusiasm.
Phil says musically, Ringo was not the best drummer on offer to the band, however he was the one that "sparked," a trait which attracted John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
"If you are passionate about what you do, you may not go as far as Ringo, but you will enjoy your life", Phil says. The message Phil tells his students may have a different meaning for them though: Phil tells how Ringo Starr's voiceover in Thomas the Tank engine is the main reason this generation know who he is talking about!
Having enjoyed the "fat pay-packet" the some-time musician claims, "I didn't realise what job satisfaction was. It's not the sort of thing money can buy. It's the first time ever that after work I get in the car to drive home and think wow! How good is my life:"
Noel - Former pentathlon athlete has never stopped running - towards learning
From training for the World Modern Pentathlon titles to learning about mastitis, 53 year old Noel Stringer has never totally satisfied his passion for knowledge. In what he calls a chequered career he came to the conclusion that he had to pursue a profession after representing Australia in the modern pentathlon in South Africa in 1969.
"In those days you weren't allowed to make any money from such an amateur sport. While was I was competing at a high level and had the chance to go to the World Titles in France in 1970 I wasn't a fanatic, so I had to look elsewhere."
This led him to enter the family business of owning and running record shops, although even then he was interested in agriculture as the family owned a small parcel of land in what is now the area opposite V-F-L Park in suburban Melbourne.
This was sold in the seventies and a larger property in South Gippsland was purchased and by the early eighties he and his wife Joanne took up farming with a vengeance.
They spent over 20 years owning and managing a sheep and beef property in rural Victoria.
Several years ago Noel and his wife decided to sell the family farm and buy a smaller property for a "lifestyle change, not retirement." However he then decided to lease the newly acquired land to a dairy operator who subsequently employed him - so the landholder is now working for the tenant.
"It's the challenge and you need to push yourself," he says. It is why since leaving school he has been involved in some form of instruction and community participation. The need to know more about mastitis came after the father of two found himself working for a dairy operation with 1,000 milkers, some of whom needed mastitis control.
He has continually undertaken different courses which includes a 12 month farm management course at Melbourne's RMIT, Sheep Handling, to study so he could become a qualified wool classer. "Personally I don't think it matters what you do, it's more the process of learning," he argues.
This is reflected in his commitment to ongoing training to enable him to help fight coastal erosion in his role as a member of the foreshore committee at Walkerville.
He also believes his varied interests "gives them something to talk about," with his two sons, one who is at university and the other in his final year at boarding school.
At the same time he has a role in the musical "Guys and Dolls" with the Foster Amateur Music and Dramatic Association, having previously trod the boards in productions of "Fiddler on the Roof" and "Oliver".
He is still not satisfied though, "as I would like to become more computer literate."
Amidst all of this his wife Joanne is studying a Masters of Business and Technology, which she is doing by correspondence through Sydney University. It sounds like a case of 'if you can't beat em, join em!'
