The culture at Berwick TEC is very much about community and the values of a community. It's tremendously important to us.
We're talking about both the community inside the TEC – the students and teachers – and the different local communities that surround us.
It works both ways so everybody wins
They say the best way to learn anything is to teach others how to do it. Well, you get the chance to polish the skills you learn at the TEC by getting involved in community projects and passing on those skills to others.
For example, at the TEC you can learn about martial arts, teamwork and communication as part of your personal development. Then you go into the community and help teach primary school children what you know. The school kids love it and they form a bond with you.
Tracey Burchall, Teacher and Co-ordinator at the TEC, says, "Our aim in getting students into action in community projects is twofold: firstly to engage with and contribute to the various communities within our reach - to nurture the sense of the importance of that. And secondly to increase the employability skills of our students by exposing them to real life situations in those communities"
Other kinds of community projects might involve a group of students running a disco or the tradies helping to build a kitchen garden at local primary schools.
It's all part of the learning and doing approach at the TEC... and it's FUN too.
