Students win as Community Foundation for Central Victoria and Deakin partner-up

Students in regional Victoria are set to be the big winners as the Community Foundation for Central Victoria and Deakin University launch an important partnership to bring together education pathways and local industry in central Victoria.

Chair of the Community Foundation of Central Victoria Penny Wilkinson and Deakin Vice-Chancellor Professor Jane den Hollander will launch the historic partnership at a function in Bendigo on Tuesday.

The agreement will see Deakin University and the Community Foundation for Central Victoria build on their long-standing commitment to rural and regional Victoria by establishing engineering scholarships for highly motivated students.

Deakin's Head of School of Engineering Professor Guy Littlefair said the $55 million Centre for Advanced Design in Engineering Training (CADET) will begin enrolling students later this year.

"Recipients of the scholarships will receive financial support to undertake engineering studies at Deakin through local pathways at Bendigo TAFE," Professor Littlefair said.

"We want to give students the opportunity to become the engineers of the future.

"CADET's strong entrepreneurial and product design culture means students will graduate at the cutting edge of technological innovation."

Ms Wilkinson said the partnership between Deakin and the Community Foundation of Central Victoria will open up a world of opportunity to local students.

"Learning pathways are vital in ensuring students continue to learn and go on to make strong contributions to our communities," Ms Wilkinson said.

About CADET

CADET will provide some of the best future-focused engineering and design facilities in the Australian university sector and offer the most advanced engineering and design training capabilities in regional Australia.

CADET will house virtual and real prototyping facilities, allowing creative design solutions to be developed almost seamlessly from imagination to reality to manufacture in a single journey.

Be it new wind turbines, medical devices, sustainable infrastructure, alternative vehicles or robotic aids, CADET will provide the key elements to imagineer the ultimate solution.

For more information on CADET, visit: http://www.deakin.edu.au/engineering/cadet

About Community Foundation for Central Victoria

The Community Foundation for Central Victoria is a philanthropic fund established to support local community initiatives that support health and wellbeing, the environment, the arts and other community services.

The Foundation has a unique structure that provides for donations to be invested in a strictly controlled manner and the income generated from these donations is provided in the form of grants on an annual basis.

"The model is an interesting one as it means that when people or organisations donate to the Foundation, that donation keeps giving to their local community over and over again as the initial money is held and the income it generates is provided back to community," said Ian Hart, newly appointed Deputy Chair of the Community Foundation and CEO of the Bendigo Trust.

"Put simply, you donate money and we keep giving it back to your community forever," he said.

Last year the Foundation donated over $70,000 toward a range of projects including Eaglehawk Saltworks community meals, Woodend Community House volunteer training, Castlemaine Friends of the Library Read Along Mum and Dad program and the Sidney Myer Haven Home Safe project.

For more information on Community Foundation for Central Victoria, visit: http://www.communityfoundationbcv.com.au/