Kerry Whitaker from GAGAL (Gladstone Area Group Apprentices Ltd)

Gladstone Area Group Apprentices Ltd (GAGAL) is a not for profit community based group training company based in Central Queensland which has as its core business the employment and training of apprentices and trainees.

GAGAL has introduced an innovative trade based hands on program for Year 4 students. Based on the successful GAGAL What’s My Trade? concept this program aims to engage young people in an effort to increase school attendance rates and improve literacy and numeracy standards. CEO Kerry Whitaker says “anecdotally we know that young people start disengaging from the education sector at about Year 4. If we can keep them engaged, enthused and interested we can go some way to improving the overall literacy and numeracy levels. This is about future planning. If we can improve the overall literacy and numeracy standards of young people we can prevent disengaging in high school which leads to a better quality applicant for apprenticeships and traineeships”

The 8 week pilot program was funded by Rio Tinto Alcan Community Fund and was a partnership between GAGAL, Central State School and QUT’s Yumi Deadly Maths Centre. 5 construction projects were designed especially for their maths and science content and curriculum was developed to support the projects. GAGAL trades trainers spent time with the students at school one day per week to talk about timber, construction and the projects the young people and the students then visited the GAGAL workshops the day after for the hands on component.

Teena Cahill, Year 4 Support Teacher said “I was astonished to see the marked improvement in the students’ results with some students making remarkable progress particularly in the area of measurement and number. What is not able to be measured through traditional tests is the improvement in other areas such as confidence, team work, leadership and behaviour”