Latin America has become an increasingly important region for Australia’s international education sector. It highlights the efforts of Australia’s National Strategy for International Education 2025, which aims to embrace new opportunities and diversify Australia’s education offerings.
The Council for Australia Latin America Relations (COALAR) in collaboration with the Council for International Education Expert Members created a Latin America Working Group in March 2018 to develop a more strategic, coordinated approach to building Australian engagement.
The growth in student numbers from Latin America, coupled with increasing institutional partnerships and research collaboration, has drawn renewed attention to Australia’s training and research relationships with the diverse countries that make up the region.
Now the Department of Education is running a project to address mining skills gaps in Latin America. The aim is to create new opportunities for transnational education delivery in vocational education and training (VET).
The project will pilot VET courses in selected partner countries – Argentina, Chile, and Mexico – and could include different modes of delivery and different types of courses. Through this highlighted Request For Tender, the department is seeking training organisation(s) that can develop curricula and deliver pilot mining courses in one or more partner countries. Tender responses may be for all partner countries – Argentina, Chile, and Mexico – or a subset. This RFT, therefore, may result in the department issuing multiple contracts.
There are two components:
- Design courses and curricula for a set number of critical mining skills based on occupational standards provided by the department and informed by industry stakeholders.
- Deliver a set number of critical mining skills pilot short training courses throughout 2024 to locally engaged mining staff in Argentina, Chile, and Mexico.
All courses must incorporate a formal assessment component and a Certificate of Successful Completion award. Delivery could be online and/or hybrid, depending on local content and needs. Participants will
primarily speak Spanish, so tenderers should factor in translation or delivery in Spanish.
The project will aim to create products that are as aligned to the Australian system as possible. This will facilitate offshore delivery by Australian VET providers and help to position Australia as a leader in quality international education and skills delivery.
Project Advisory Committees (PACs), consisting of Latin American government and industry representatives in each partner country will guide the development and implementation of the pilots. The selected provider(s) will be required to work with the PACs, as well as other relevant stakeholders, in the design and delivery of the courses.
Tenderers’ responses should indicate the country(s) in which they are interested in delivering the pilot courses. The department will not consider joint tenders and expects the contract to start on 1 February 2024 and be completed on 1 February 2025 with a possible six months’ extension.
The closing time and date for responses is 4pm ACT time on Monday 15 January 2024.
If you are after further advice on this topic or any tender opportunity, feel free to contact us. You can also subscribe to this newsletter for regular weekly updates.
