Organisations and councils across the region were working together to build the vision and plan for ‘Growing our Own in Griffith’. 

The concept was to bring students, employers and educators into alignment to ensure people could get skills and use them within the region.

Jacqui Bramwell, manager of sectoral partnerships with Deakin University, described the program as ‘train and retain’.

“It’s exciting for Griffith because it’s the first pilot of a national partnership that’s been formed between Deakin University and Bendigo Bank,” Ms Bramwell said.

“Under that partnership there’s several actions and one of them is around building regional prosperity through improving access to education.

“The goal is by working in partnership with a number of communities to align the education offer with the current and future skills needs of the region, but also to address the gaps and issues the community is identifying in terms of education.”

It was hoped this alignment approach would give businesses and industries an improved ability to develop their future workforce.

Griffith Business Chamber president Paul Pierotti was involved in the planning of the program, and was excited about the potential economic and social benefits to the entire region.

“We’ve got Leeton, Carathool and Hay shires involved as well, so while Griffith is the centre for this it is for the entire region. Our charter is to provide affordable, accessible education for everyone.”

“What it’s really about is to not just educate people here but to keep them here. It's to educate them and get them jobs so they stay here, to stop the brain drain.”

The delivery of tailored higher education to the area was also expected to remove an obstacle for potential students by allowing them to stay at home while studying.

“We know that the biggest barrier to young people taking up the university offers is the cost of moving away from home to the cities,” Ms Bramwell said.

“I don’t know how any kid now can afford to go to uni and live in Sydney or Melbourne,” Mr Pierotti said.

It was believed regional businesses were more likely to retain skilled and qualified staff if they came from within the region.