Endeavour Awards (Australia)

Professional Development Opportunities | Internationalizing the Curriculum

Endeavour Executive Award, are professional development awards for mid-career professionals in business, industry, education or government funded by the Australian Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. Awards are valued at AUD$18,500 to fund professional development opportunities in Australia for 1-4 months.

Applications for the second round of Endeavour Awards open 1 November (closing on 20 December 2011) for Awards to be undertaken after July 2012.

The Award enables the recipient to build skills and knowledge in a host work environment through activities such as: management training, peer-to-peer learning, mentoring, and short courses. Applicants must be nominated by an Australian host organisation and the professional development activity must be vocationally useful and not geared toward completion of a degree, academic research or an immediate commercial outcome. Those interested in academic research and postdoctoral opportunities should instead apply for an Endeavour Research Fellowship.

The Endeavour Executive Awards have only been open to North American applicants for two years. There have been three award recipients to date:

• Mindy Feldbaum (USA), Director for Workforce Development Programs, National Institute for Work and Learning was awarded an Australia Endeavour Executive Award to advance the United States-Australia Green Skills Learning Exchange and Network and sustainability practices at community colleges. Mindy was hosted at TAFE Directors Australia, National Centre for Sustainability at Swinburne University of Technology and RMIT University.

• James Day (USA), Director of Guitar Studies at The College of New Jersey and Adjunct Associate Professor at Westminster College of the Arts of Rider University, received a 2011 Australia Endeavour Award to fund professional development and collaboration at the Centre for Cultural Partnerships, Faculty of the VCA and Music, University of Melbourne.

• Dana Reiter (Canada), Project Consultant, Aboriginal Human Resource Council received an Endeavour Executive Award for peer-to-peer exchange on Indigenous workforce development issues at Social Ventures Australia.

If you are interested in applying, please contact Mark Darby, Counsellor (Education) at mark.darby@dfat.gov.au or Sarah Wolf, Education Manager – North America at sarah.wolf@austrade.gov.au to discuss designing your program and identifying possible host organisations.

The Endeavour Executive Awards are funded by the Australian Government and aim to deepen professional engagements, while Building linkages and networks between Australia and participating countries.