Ms SPENCE (Yuroke) — I recently had the pleasure of meeting with Nick Orchard of the Beacon Foundation, who is doing some terrific work with Mount Ridley College in Craigieburn. Mount Ridley College and the Beacon Foundation have partnered to support young people to stay in school, become work ready and acquire real jobs in growth industries. This involves collaborating with local business leaders to identify the skills that young people need to thrive in the 21st-century workforce.

On Wednesday, 5 August, the Beacon Foundation held a Collaborative Classrooms session at Mount Ridley College, along with senior representatives from five large industry groups, including Origin, Cummins and Holcim Australia. These industry representatives collaborated with teachers to reinterpret the classroom curriculum in a way that is engaging and reflective of real-world skill requirements. The most exciting outcome of the session was Cummins commissioning Mount Ridley coding students to solve a real challenge the company is facing in revamping its stock management systems. Students are going to design a solution using robotics and will present their solution and costings to the Cummins Australia executive.

I am really excited about this partnership and what it can achieve for local students. I look forward to hearing about its ongoing work. I hope to see such partnerships develop in other schools and, most importantly, I look forward to hearing the proposal to be put by the Mount Ridley College students to modernise and revamp the stock management system for Cummins Australia.