You should be self-motivated, willing to acquire new skills and work reliably in a small team.

 Responsibilities include:

• Processing of enrolments for language courses, conferences and seminars
• Invoicing and controlling
• Assistance with event and language class organisation
• Administration of intern program
• Administration of scholarship and language assistant program
• Management of database
• Answering general enquiries
• Advising clients on language courses in Australia and overseas

 What you need to fulfill to qualify for this role:

• Minimum 3 years experience in administration
• Fluency in spoken and written English and German
• Advanced Microsoft Office skills
• Excellent organizational skills
• Strong customer focus

Note on Residency: To be eligible to apply for this position, you must have an appropriate Australian work visa (no work & holiday visa please!)

 Hours: 4 days with a total of 26 hours per week

Salary: in accordance with experience

Starting date: 11 January 2011

Contract period: 12 months

Applications close: 25 November 2010 

For further information and application please contact

Petra Franz petra.franz@melbourne.goethe.org 

Applications and enquiries by email only please

 The Goethe-Institut is the Federal Republic of Germany’s cultural institution, operational worldwide. We promote the study of German abroad and encourage international cultural exchange. We also foster knowledge of Germany by providing comprehensive information on its culture, society and politics. www.goethe.de

It is my understanding that Prof. Joe Lo Bianco and others have applied for a NALSSP grant to establish the projected “National Tertiary Languages Network”. News on the current 2010 round of NALSSP grant proposals should follow now that the dust is settling from the recent 2010 federal election. If we want a thoroughly integrated languages education in Australia, with sensible articulation top to bottom, and effective lobbying and promotion, we need to have everyone networking together from AlphaTykes to PhD supervisors. Philip Mahnken, Sunshine Coast
Recommendations from the Beyond the Crisis Colloquium
Recommendation 1: That universities, at the policy level, give explicit and urgent recognition to the strategic importance of the study of languages and cultures; and that they develop appropriate strategies and provide adequate resources for the promotion and effective maintenance of these studies. This would include attention and resources be given to providing appropriate identification procedures (such as placement tests),
and sufficient course levels and pathways to allow learners with diverse language backgrounds to be grouped according to their proficiency and learning needs, so that their full learning potential can be realised.
Recommendation 2: That the university sector (perhaps through DASSH) work towards a uniform and nuanced definition of what constitutes attrition, and that the relevant
faculties generate and make readily available comparative statistics about attrition in languages and other humanities and social sciences areas.
Recommendation 3: That individual languages programmes across Australia consider the practice of a motivation / intention / background questionnaire on the model of the one
used in LASP 2, to be administered to all students early in the first semester of their language study. The questionnaire takes only a few minutes of class time and, although the recording and analysis of data is time-consuming, this should be budgeted for by the relevant schools in order to provide a clearer picture of the student cohort and their motivations and intentions, to better predict class sizes, to facilitate staff planning, and to provide a basis for ongoing curriculum review. The information gathered could be shared through the National Tertiary Languages Network.
Recommendation 4: That the National Tertiary Languages Network undertake, as a matter of priority, to engage with the issues raised in relation to TELL, particularly with a view to enabling increased collaboration and exchange across the sector. [end quote]

There are many valuable and encouraging reports and other publications at the Australian Academy of the Humanities website http://www.humanities.org.au/ I got the above quote from AN ANALYSIS OF RETENTION STRATEGIES AND TECHNOLOGY ENHANCED LEARNING IN BEGINNERS’ LANGUAGES OTHER THAN ENGLISH (LOTE) AT AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES.

Languages Matter!

Languages matter in developing classroom pedagogy.

In understanding teacher professional standards.

In quality interactions in the language specific classroom.

In building bridges to the world.

In developing intercultural and other literacies for Australia’s future.

Share with your colleagues how you are making Languages Matter.

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