Writer

Don Perlgut
Don Perlgut is the CEO of Community Colleges Australia, a national advocacy organisation for not-for-profit adult and community education providers. He holds a PhD in media/communications from Macquarie University, a Masters of City Planning from the University of California at Berkeley and a BA from Cornell University. He worked as a consultant to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development prior to moving to Australia many years ago.
-
Time to get serious about ventilation and air quality in training and post-secondary education
Australia is not doing enough to improve clean air in post-secondary education and training environments. Given the COVID-19 pandemic will be with us for a very long time to come, training providers and universities need to invest more in ventilation and air quality to ensure that students can learn in the safest environments possible. Continue reading »
-
A year of living dangerously for vocational education and training in Australia
Will the Covid-19 Omicron variant devastate vocational education and training (VET) again in early 2022? Early indicators are not good. Continue reading »
-
What ‘On the Beach’ tells us about COVID-19 in Australia
By world standards, Australia has achieved an enviable insularity from COVID-19, an effective and almost total community elimination protected by our island status, our placid and astonishingly well-behaved populace, and our location in an almost forgotten corner of the world. Yet there is a history of Australian survival in the face of universal annihilation, one Continue reading »
-
Vocational Education Trainers need vaccination priority – economic recovery may depend on it
Face-to-face teaching is vital for VET students, who are often from a lower socio-economic background and are most affected by the digital divide. As getting them back into the classrooms is a priority, their trainers should also be considered a priority group for the Covid-19 vaccine. Continue reading »
-
What does a Biden presidency mean for Australian post-secondary education?
President-elect Joe Biden’s anticipated quick alteration to American policy on climate change has received the greatest media attention in Australia because of its anticipated impact here, what about education? Although the election appeared to be a “policy free zone”, many of the Democratic Party’s policies on education represent a significant change from the past four Continue reading »