Back to Laulon Research Consortium
 |
Vic Zbar is a consultant and writer specialising in educational consulting and evaluation, leadership and organisational development within Australia and internationally. After nine years as a high school teacher of economics and history, Vic spent six years as a full time elected teacher union official. This included one year as President of the Teachers' Federation of Victoria. |
In 1988 Vic joined the State Board of Education as a Project Director responsible for overseeing major research and development undertaken on behalf of the Minister for Education. In 1989 he became the principal adviser to the Chief Executive of the Victorian Education Department.
From 1991 to 1993 Vic Zbar was the Assistant Director of the Human Resources Branch in the Victorian Education Department. In this capacity he was responsible for the Department's professional development and management training programs, as well as its organisation development, workforce planning and personnel policy functions.
Vic Zbar has written extensively over the last two decades and has been published in a wide variety of newspapers and journals. He is the author of two management best sellers (Managing the future, published by Macmillan in 1995; and Key management concepts: unlocking 10 of the best management books, published in 1996, and is co-editor of two volumes of Leading the Education Debate (IARTV, 2003 and CSE 2007). He has completed a number of major research reports and case studies for DEECD, including Creating eLearning Leaders and High Performing School case studies, and is co-author of Better Schools, Better Teachers, Better Results: A Handbook for Improving Performance Management in Your School published by ACER in 2008.
Vic has been involved in a number of major educational projects, evaluations and consultations including PD 2000 for the Commonwealth government, evaluations of the National Asian Languages and Studies of Asia Strategy programs, the writing of the Values Education Study and Boys’ Education Lighthouse Schools Program reports and a recent major report on high performing, high disadvantage schools in Victoria which also has been published in summary form by CSE. Vic was the principal consultant to the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority on the development of the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS) and associated issues such as advice on assessment and Years 9 and 10, and was engaged as one of two critical friends to the development of the most recent Blueprint for Victorian Government schools. Vic has reviewed and advised a number of regional directors on targeted under-performing schools and worked with several of them on the implementation of strategic improvement plans.
Vic is renowned throughout Australia for his conference and consultations reports, and regularly is engaged to cover major state and national events. Most recently he was commissioned by DEECD to produce the summary report of the International Education Leaders’ Dialogue conducted in Melbourne in December 2008 and hosted by the Minister for Education and Secretary of the Department, Dr Peter Dawkins.
Over the last ten years, Vic has reviewed more than 60 schools on behalf of the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development and is currently part of a team reviewing all of the Northern Territory Senior Secondary Schools.
In addition to his work in Australia, Vic has been involved in educational projects in the United States, Indonesia, Sierra Leone, The Gambia and the United Kingdom and has undertaken work for the Commonwealth Secretariat based in London on its public sector improvement initiative. He has been a key consultant to the education reform program in Hong Kong since 2005 and has undertaken major projects for the Quality Assurance Division in that jurisdiction.
Vic's recent clients include the World Bank, the Education Bureau in Hong Kong, the Australian Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR), DEECD, the Northern Territory Department of Education and Training, the North Melbourne Football Club working together with the Scanlon Foundation and the Australian Multicultural Foundation, VCAA and numerous schools.
Back to Laulon Research Consortium