Brisbane North Institute of TAFE

Engaging the ICT Industry BNIT and Mincom venture

MINCOM, a Brisbane based internationally recognised Information Communication and Technology Company in association with Brisbane North Institute of TAFE (BNIT) is working towards an ICT qualified workforce.

Brisbane North Institute of TAFE has had a long association with MINCOM and continues to work in partnerships with MINCOM's Vice President, Mr Richard Scott to deliver Recognition for Prior Learning to its employees.

A direct result of this collaboration, BNIT and MINCOM in 2008 commenced a new Recognition for Prior Learning Industry Engagement Model that is non-paper based.

Currently there are 53 ICT workers engaged in the RPL process with four workers completing their RPL in time for the graduation ceremony held on March 25, 2009. The RPL process is offered across a total of ten ICT Diploma areas and embraces Certificate II and Certificate IV in these discipline areas as well.

The new RPL model has been well received by MINCOM and its workers, which has also allowed BNIT to trial a new software product by "Desire2Learn" called e-Portfolio. This product was made available by the innovations team of BNIT and allowed MINCOM workers to up-load their RPL artefacts to its central repository for controlled viewing on the WEB.

This pilot has now finished and the results are being collated. This pilot would not have been possible without the support of MINCOM, Vice President, Mr Scott.

This cooperative venture between BNIT and MINCOM has been a very successful and the interest shown by the workers at MINCOM is proof that recognising the existing skills and knowledge of ICT workers is an important step in overcoming the shortage of qualified workers ICT in Queensland.