Margaret Lifu has chosen the Sunshine Coast as a springboard to her teaching career, encouraged by the region's reputation for education best practice.

Margaret completed her primary school in Papua New Guinea and her high school in Darwin before moving to the Sunshine Coast to pursue her teaching goals.

Last year, as an education trainee at Glenview Primary School, she was named as Sunshine Coast Group Apprenticeship Ltd's trainee of the year.

This year, she is enrolled in the first year of Central Queensland University's Bachelor of Learning Management degree via the Noosa Teacher Education Campus, and is already getting practical experience at Noosa's Sunshine Beach Primary School.

More than 20 state schools throughout the Sunshine Coast are now part of the cutting-edge Bachelor of Learning Management (BLM) initiative based at the Noosa Teacher Education Campus (which is co-located with Cooroora Secondary College at Pomona).

The latest 'teaching schools' to join the project include Coolum, Maleny, Kenilworth , Burnside High, Yandina, Pacific Paradise, KinKin, Montville, Pomona and Jones Hill These schools are hosting 110 first and second-year Central Queensland University students enrolled in BLM degrees and based at Noosa Teacher Education Campus The school links are critical to the program, since students are expected to gain school teaching experience from day one of their degree. The practical experience is built in, not an add-on.

Noosa Teacher Education Campus coordinator David Lynch said hundreds of students had applied to attend the facility, which was now recognised by Education Queensland as a best-practice initiative.

"One of the features of this initiative is the partnership between a supplier - CQU's Faculty of Education and Creative Arts - and an employer - Education Queensland," he said. "The BLM is focused on producing learning managers. We need teachers who can help students learn how to learn." Mr Lynch said the Noosa Teacher Education Campus was also a hub for delivery of CQU's Master of Learning Management degree, which was also developed in partnership with Education Queensland to meet the needs of their '2010 Program'. ENDS For details/interview call David Lynch on 07 5485 2986 or CQU Dean of Education and Creative Arts Professor Jim Mienczakowski on 0418 790 902