Call for more support from business

As many businesses consider new ways of supporting university training in light of Western Australia’s growing skills crisis, the Fogarty Foundation is one organisation already doing something.

Backed by the family of GRD chairman Brettney Fogarty, the foundation has teamed up with the University of WA and GRD to offer scholarships to undergraduate students at UWA.

It helped 14 students this year and Mr Fogarty said the aim was to increase that number to about 35 new students per year.

That would represent a total financial commitment of $4.5 million.

State Development Minister Alan Carpenter would like more companies to get involved in programs such as the UWA Fogarty Foundation Scholarship Program.

“What we are suffering from is a lack of a strategic approach to education and training with the needs of industry in mind,” Mr Carpenter said.

“The companies are part of that. They need a strategic view as well.”

Mr Fogarty would like to extend the foundation’s program to other universities and to secure backing from other companies.

“We’d very much like to see major groups in WA get involved,” he said.

The Fogarty Foundation (separately from UWA) has been providing about 30 scholarships a year to teachers to help them complete post-graduate studies for the past six years.

Mr Fogarty said the foundation started helping undergraduates three years ago to try and stop WA’s best students being lured interstate.

He said all of the scholarship recipients this year (except one) had been approached by the University of Melbourne.

If they moved interstate, Mr Fogarty said it was likely they would be lost to WA forever.

Mr Fogarty, who grew up in rural WA, said another big driver was a desire to help country students meet the high cost of studying in Perth.

As well as providing financial assistance, the foundation seeks to help students develop.

“Its all about leadership and excellence in individuals,” Mr Fogarty told WA Business News.

In line with this theme, scholarship recipients need to demonstrate both academic excellence and community involvement.

The development program includes spending time with prominent leaders, including the foundation’s current patron, former Premier Richard Court.

The students also had a session this year with WA Opera chairman Frank Cooper and performers from the opera company to learn what it takes to achieve excellence.

The students are expected to visit their schools and act as mentors for younger people.

Mr Fogarty said GRD was “quite commercial” in its support, given the opportunity it would have to recruit some of the state’s top students.