On the grapevine
MARCH 2009
By Rebecca Perry
If you could bottle success, what would it look like? Red, white and sparkling, judging by the vintages being produced at Stanthorpe's Queensland College of Wine Tourism where REBECCA PERRY finds an innovative education venture overflowing with achievements.
Forty years ago John Neville began his teaching career in Stanthorpe, then a small community on the Southern Downs where tourists flocked in the winter months to enjoy the local lifestyle, food and wine.
Teaching agricultural science taught him how to work from the ground up - so it is little wonder the father-of-two looks at the Queensland College of Wine Tourism with a sense of paternal pride.
'I was principal of Stanthorpe State High School when we started working with the wine tourism industry to develop a training program for students,' Mr Neville recalls.
'We had the land, tractors, farmhands and all the groundwork to create a college, and it built up from that.'
Stanthorpe's Queensland College of Wine Tourism.
Now, after 37 years at Stanthorpe State High, Mr Neville is chief executive officer of the wine tourism college - which is helping keep young people studying, working and living locally.
Flowing on
While Western Australia has a similar training facility in Margaret River, Stanthorpe's $7.5 million venture links three tiers of secondary, vocational and tertiary education in what is thought to be an Australia-first model.
Now in its third year, the college, in partnership with the University of Southern Queensland, Southern Queensland Institute of TAFE and industry partners, has provided specialist training facilities for more than 500 students in viticulture and winemaking, wine tourism, hospitality and business.
The operation today is bigger than Mr Neville ever imagined it would grow to become.
'The contextualised vocational training happens in a real business setting, which is invaluable for teachers and students,' he says.
Mr Neville hasn't yet found a comparison elsewhere in the world, with other countries, including the USA, now taking notice.
'They are very interested in what Queensland is doing,' he says.
'We have already hosted a group of teachers from California, while some of our own teachers and students travelled to California's premier wine region the Napa Valley in September last year.'
Year 12 student Belinda Minotto was among them.
'It was an amazing experience,' she says. 'They grow grapes and make wine, but it isn't as big as our school.'
Belinda is studying for a career in tourism, and while she helped make a bottle of wine to give to California's St Helena High School, she is too young to taste the fruits of her labour just yet.
The college's Banca Ridge label has won awards for every vintage produced while the cellar door, function centre and restaurant - run mostly by students - have become local attractions for visitors, tourists and others looking to use its facilities for conferences and events.
Across the board
Since the college started, winemaking is wrapping its way around Queensland like a grapevine, with students from 13 Gateway Schools in seven wine regions getting a taste for the industry, including Toowoomba's Centenary Heights State High School.
Deputy principal Alex van Dorsselaer, whose teaching background is in social science, says winemaking is in his blood.
'My father was Dutch and extremely passionate about wine,' Mr van Dorsselaer says.
'I couldn't wait to get involved with this.'
The Gateway School Project for Wine Tourism, of which Centenary Heights is a partner, was successful in obtaining a grant of $192,000 from the Federal Government's National Training Infrastructure Program to buy winemaking equipment.
Gateway students also participate in the Young Wine Makers' Program, based at the college, which teaches the entire winemaking process from grape growing to bottling, and has led to traineeships and further study in the industry.
And teachers are just as interested.
The college hosts a range of professional development opportunities that target training in practical lessons such as science and chemistry, allowing teachers to share ideas while encouraging other educators to broaden their skills in a hands-on environment.
'We even had one teacher come down from Cairns in his caravan so he could attend the two-day training,' says Sheridan van Asch, the Department of Education, Training and the Arts' director of industry strategy.
Ms van Asch oversees the delivery of 95 Gateway Schools across Queensland covering seven industries including wine tourism, manufacturing and engineering, building and construction, agribusiness, and minerals and energy.
'Many senior students don't know what they want to do when they leave school,' she says.
'Having the opportunity to explore pathways into key industries gives them the chance to get experience and really learn about the range of job opportunities that are out there.'
In the face of a skills shortage and global economic concerns, industries are counting on trained graduates to carry their work forward.
'We have an aging workforce and industries are telling us that they need young people to come through,' Ms van Asch says.
'They want the energy, fresh ideas and ways of improving their practices this next generation can bring, and they want to open doors for them.
'There are so many jobs available that can take students anywhere in the world, and hopefully they can then bring those skills back to Queensland.'
A road to success
Stanthorpe boasts 55 wineries and winemakers there have rallied behind training efforts.
The Puglisi family, which runs the Ballandean Estate, recently donated $3000 to award the most outstanding student in wine tourism while Tony Comino, who operates Kominos Wines, joined local industry efforts to provide $250,000 worth of grapes and in-kind support to get the college off the ground.
Mr Comino embraces the chance to share knowledge, supply on-site training and let students work at functions.
'It is great to be able to help teachers and young people. I wish there'd been something like this when I was training,' he says.
'In the Eighties, I had to travel 20 hours by train from Stanthorpe to Wagga and back to do my practical tuition and it was just too onerous.'
Now, for many young Queenslanders, the journey to industry training is less bumpy - and a lot closer to home.
For more information visit the Queensland College of Wine Tourism website 
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