| Notes |
The STEMship program is Australia’s first VET pre-employment program focusing on the development of STEM
skills at a technical level. The program was developed by RDA Hunter’s ME Program and the NSW Department of
Industry (Training Services NSW), and is delivered by Hunter TAFE (now TAFE NSW) to contribute to a highlyskilled job-ready talent pool. The STEMship program development was led by Dr Scott Sleap as the Director of
the ME Program as a vocational extension of the Stage 5 iSTEM curriculum. The STEMship program which was
developed from iSTEM was recongised in 2019 as international best practice by Employment and Skills Unit at
the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Similar programs have been developed
from this including STEMstart which is funded by Lockheed Martin. This initiative offers a vocational pathway for
technical training that will include critical skills in ICT, cyber security and programming.
iSTEM has also been backward mapped into cross-curriculum versions in Stage 4 as well as stage 1 – 3 primary
units, providing a continuum or pipeline of STEM learning. |