Globally Engaged Learners (GELs) Program

The Globally Engaged Learners (GELs) Program aims to equip primary and secondary students from government and non-government Victorian schools with the skills and aspirations to become active global citizens. The program funds student places in a select range of global learning and engagement activities that enable international and local student peer-to-peer collaboration and build students' active global citizenship skills and capabilities, including intercultural capability, personal and social capability, leadership, and student voice and agency. The department has engaged four external providers to deliver the following GELs activities:

Culture Quest (Years 5 to 9)

This activity will allow students to participate in a digital adventure set on the Great Wall of China. Time has stopped on the eve of the Lunar New Year and our young adventurers will need to complete 12 missions as they interact with all 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac to “unfreeze” time and bring in the new year.

This digital Culture Quest will bring augmented reality into the classroom prior to students having one-hour to join the digital space either by tablet, laptop, or a virtual reality headset. As students roam the digital landscape and explore the Great Wall of China, they will have to apply their cultural knowledge of China to pass the missions along the way. Time is not on anyone’s side so collaboration and problem solving are essential!

To express interest in the activity, contact: Meg Languages.

The Global Citizenship Student Ambassador Program (SAP) (Years 5 to 9)

This one-year program builds empowered global citizens who learn about the core concepts of global citizenship through this activity, and then use these skills to take action on a real issue in their school or school community. Students work as inclusive student leaders to design solutions, through consultation with their peers and school community and leverage community partnerships to amplify their project impact and success.

Using Design Thinking, media literacy, digital storytelling, the participants build leadership and project management skills and connect with a national cohort of peer changemakers live on Zoom and through Flipgrid topics.

This program offers deep, real-world, learning and potential for leadership and personal growth across the whole school year and will run for both primary and secondary cohorts.

To express interest in the program, contact: Meg Languages.

Connect Global Youth Forums (Years 10 to 12)

The Connect Global Youth Forum is a virtual one-day event that brings together young people from a regional cluster of Victorian schools with their peers from schools in the Asia-Pacific. This activity will provide an opportunity for the participants to connect and work together to examine a relevant issue that impacts both local and global communities. Through real-life, meaningful and authentic interaction with peers, students will explore the diversity of impacts, how the issue affects different communities, and potential actions they can take to have a positive impact.

During the live, synchronous forum, Asia Education Foundation will facilitate activities that encourage collaboration, discussion and intercultural understanding with the goal of promoting engagement and global citizenship.

For further information, or to express interest in this activity, see: Connect Global Forums, or contact: Supreya Blyth: s.blyth@asialink.unimelb.edu.au at Asia Education Foundation.

Project Global Citizen (Years 10 to 12)

Project Global Citizen 4-week Challenge: “The Earthshot Prize Pitch” (Years 10 to 12)

This 4-week series of 1-hour sessions will allow students in Years 10 – 12 to learn and apply cultural competency skills and collaborate in cross-cultural teams with students from across the globe to develop an idea that will change the world. This live-facilitated and highly immersive virtual program provides school students with the foundations for developing cultural intelligence as a life-long professional competency for global citizenship and for collaborating in cross-cultural teams.

Project Global Citizen Bootcamp: “The UN Environmental Challenge” (Years 10 to 12)

In this 3-hour bootcamp, students will learn and apply cultural competency skills and collaborate in cross-cultural teams with students from across the globe to solve a challenge relating to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 14: Life Below Water. To crack the challenge, the participants will need to respectfully reach consensus with your team mates, and harnesses a range of perspectives.

This live-facilitated and highly immersive virtual program provides school students with the foundations for developing cultural intelligence as a life-long professional competency for global citizenship and for collaborating in cross-cultural teams.

To participate in either of the Project Global Citizen activities, contact: Project Global Citizen, or email Deb Moran, Coordinator, Project Global Citizen at: coordinator@projectglobalcitizen.com

Global UP Teen - Global Competence Certificate (Years 7 to 12)

Global UP Teen is an online learning program that develops tangible global skills essential to live, work and make a real social impact around the world. This unique program helps the participants develop essential and lifelong global skills, such as collaboration, critical thinking, problem solving, cross-cultural communication, open-mindedness and flexibility.

Global UP Teen runs on a closed, minors-only and custom-built platform for Victorian students and their international peers. It consists of 19 self-paced online modules combined with four live facilitated online sessions that covers topics, such as metaphors of culture, stereotypes, suspending judgement, coping and being resilient, understanding inequalities, microaggressions and more. The program is completed over 5 weeks and can be done in school groups only, either with participants from sister schools, or with participants from other countries recruited by Value Learning.

Upon completion, students will receive a micro-credential badge they can link to their CVs, e-portfolios and websites, etc.

To participate in the program, see: Value Learning - GCC, or email Eloise Dolan, Schools Programs Coordinator at: eloise@valuelearning.com.au

Only schools can register for places, so if you are a student or parent, please contact your school to express interest in these activities. Schools can also reach out to providers via the contact details provided above to get more information on the programs.

Last Update: 2/06/2023 2:14 PM