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Keeping Education in the Country - Studying from Home

Announcement posted by Switched on Media 09 Mar 2010

Moving away for education is an all too frequent trend in a regional centre like of Australia, like Goulburn. Karen Hill and Sandy McNamara are two local residents who believe they can enjoy life in their hometown and learn using distance education.
Moving away for education and career development is an all too frequent trend in a regional centre like Goulburn.

Karen Hill and Sandy McNamara are two local residents who believe they can enjoy life in their hometown, while pursuing their educational goals.

Recently they both completed distance education courses in Goulburn and are busy working towards furthering their very different careers in the district.

Karen moved to Goulburn from Sydney a few years ago. While she currently runs a home based family day care business, she wants to develop a career in aged care.



“As the mother of two young school-age children my pathway to gaining the necessary qualifications was in some ways made for me – I did a course through distance education, recently graduating with a Certificate III in Aged Care.

“Despite the fact that in many ways you are on your own in this type of study, I never felt isolated and the provider, Cengage Education, was very responsive to any requests for help and particularly so with advice on assignments.”

Sandy McNamara, who has lived in Goulburn all of her life, and graduated from high school two years ago, completed one of Cengage's Photography courses, and hopes to one day establish herself as a professional photographer.

“I want to stay and work in my town and I chose to further my education by taking the distance education option. It was surprisingly hassle-free. As an example, as I am working full-time, I was unable at one stage to complete a particular assignment on time and Cengage contacted me and suggested I might like to use a tutor if I was having trouble. I appreciated that support.”

Sandy is planning to go further with her photography studies and plans to enrol in one of the advanced courses in photography with Cengage Education.



Both of these residents of Goulburn have real confidence in the future of the district and want to enjoy that future using their newly acquired vocational skills.

“In this era of economic uncertainty, the importance of education and training is becoming evermore apparent, as people of all ages and level of education face the prospect of finding new employment and seeking new career paths,” says Dirk Drieberg, Head of Academic for Cengage Education.

“Our organisation, which has provided the training for Karen and Sandy, has played a unique role over most of the past century providing government-accredited vocational education to hundreds of thousands of Australians, particularly in rural areas through its distance education courses.”

Karen Hill and Sandy McNamara, who both chose to complete their courses by correspondence, could also have opted for the fully online alternative, with the same reassuring access to a personal tutor and mentor.

Karen Hill is available for comment on 0403 174 507/4522 8991.

Sandy McNamara is available for comment on 0431 305 282/4822 8316


For further information or comment from Cengage Education, please call Glen Pleffer on (02) 9433 3605.