The Australia Exchange Programme is an exchange which is open to Y12 learners at The JCB Academy. In 2014-2015, Year 12 learners were invited to participate in the first Australia Exchange Programme. During this programme, in October 2014, four learners hosted four pupils, from St Patrick’s Technical College in Adelaide, South Australia for two weeks. The second part of this programme took place during the February half term in 2015 when Miss K Warburton and Miss H Bailey travelled to Adelaide, where our four sixth form pupils were hosted by learners from St Patrick’s Technical College. Whilst in Australia, learners were given the opportunity to spend time studying alongside their hosts at St Patrick’s Technical College and experience Australian culture. Whilst partaking in the programme, our learners developed strong relationships with pupils and staff from the college.
As a result of the success of this visit, the exchange became a regular occurrence and the first aspect of the 2017 exchange took place between 18th February and 4th March, with the second part, where St Patrick’s learners will visit the UK, in July 2017.
What is St Patrick’s Technical College?
St Patrick’s Technical College is a purpose built, multi-million dollar, specialist trade training school based in Elizabeth in South Australia. They offer a trade focused South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE) curriculum and pre-apprenticeship training for Year 11 and 12 learners. They specialise in developing individual programs for learners who wish to complete their SACE alongside a School-based Apprenticeship.
Learners at St Patrick’s are part of one of the three following sub-schools:
School of Building & Construction
- Building & Construction
- Plumbing
School of Community Services, Hospitality & Lifestyle
- Food & Hospitality
- Hair & Beauty
School of Engineering & Transport
- Automotive
- Electrotechnology
- Metals and Engineering
