Welcome to the extension/education project database.

This database is an outcome from a two year National Extension/Education Review, funded by the Cooperative Venture for Capacity Building for Innovation in Rural Industries. Contributors to the underpinning research and development of the database included: Kate Roberts and Chi Nguyen from Roberts Evaluation Pty Ltd; Jeff Coutts, Ben Coutts and Amy Samson from Coutts J&R; John Roberts from Purcell Partners; and Fionnuala Frost.

To search through the projects, simply use either the Keyword Search or Advanced Search, type in the search criteria and a list of results that match your search criteria will be displayed.

Once you have a list of results, you can click the Title of each project to view more detail.

If you would like to read more about the models please click here.

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Please note that this database is under development. Although every effort has been take to ensure that the information in this database is accurate, Coutts J&R and its associates do not assume liability of any kind resulting from any person’s use or reliance upon the content of this database

Contributions

If you have a project to contribute to the database, or updates that need to be made - please e-mail Amy Samson amy@couttsjr.com.au or phone on 07 46301297 / 0438 361153.

Alternatively, you can download the Projects Database pro-forma in PDF or WORD format , fill it out and return it to Amy.

Background to the database

This report is a result of the national extension/education review which was a flagship project of the Capacity Building for Innovation in Rural Industries Co-operative Joint Venture. The review sought a range of extension/education projects across industries and issues in rural and regional Australia to learn 'what works and why'.

Extension is described in terms of its outcome - capacity building. It is defined as the process of engaging with individuals, groups and communities so that people are more able to deal with issues affecting them and opportunities open to them.

It would appear that there are in excess of 4000 extension positions across Australia (2748 in the public, or public/community, sectors). Because figures are based on Full Time Equivalents, then perhaps half that number again of people are actually involved in extension work. Most of the public sector extension work and much of the private is based on developing and delivering projects. These projects are funded by Rural Research and Development Corporations, government and other funding bodies charged with making a difference to the economic, environmental and/or social conditions within rural and regional Australia. Rather than look at extension through the eyes of past theory, this review looked at what was actually being funded and how it was being carried out.

The overall picture, then, is that there are a large number of people and programs involving extension in its many forms. State Governments have remained significant players and the Federal Government is a major funder of extension activities across Australia. There has undoubtedly been a shift in public extension from one-on-one to group approaches and from a production/economic focus to a broader platform involving environmental and social concerns. The private sector continues to expand and, as well as undertaking individual technical advice, operates in the same sphere as public extension.

The projects that were caught in the review fell within four clearly defined extension models: Group facilitation/empowerment; Programmed learning; Technology development; and Information access. An important fifth model was acknowledged as the Individual consultant/mentor model. These models were argued to form the supports and rungs of a 'capacity building ladder' and all were seen to be complementary and necessary for the capacity building process. It was pointed out that stronger collaboration and cooperation between funding bodies could help ensure that the range of effective learning platforms were in place.

The Database is still active and a process is being developed for on-going updating. For more information contact Amy Coutts on 0746389119 on amy@couttsjr.com.au