BOYD Maplestone, sitting in his new office in Kilmore, speaks of transition and change.

It’s something the CEO of the Central Ranges Local Learning and Employment Network (LLEN) has thought a lot about since Black Saturday.

On that day, the former LLEN headquarters in Clonbinane was destroyed. It was also the house of ex-CEO Bill Coppinger, who, after staying on as head of the organisation for six months, stood down to concentrate on rebuilding.

Mr Maplestone took over the challenging role and wasted little time getting the organisation back on its feet.

“We’ve been able to pick ourselves off the ground and start to go quite well,” he said.

But the transition and change he is most interested in is of young people in the Mitchell, Murrindindi and Macedon Ranges Shires who are looking for pathways into further education or employment.

A Melbourne University study, funded by regional Victorian LLENS, had confirmed some of the concerns Mr Maplestone had about the challenges young regional Victorians face when pursuing further education.

“Increasingly, a number of young people are getting to the stage of going to university but are choosing to defer, mainly because of the costs in transitioning, usually to metropolitan areas or larger rural cities,” he said. “That’s of real concern.

“The flow-on effect, anecdotally, is that those young people stay in the local community and take some of the jobs of the young people who didn’t necessarily want to go to uni, and they start to miss out on those.”

The Central Ranges LLEN is pushing for more funding through the Department of Infrastructure to conduct more research into university deferments.

Another important focus of the LLEN is developing work-ready skills in young people.

The LLEN recently recognised the work of Assumption College careers and pathways co-ordinator Carol Fisher for growing the school’s training programs.

Under her leadership, the school-based training and apprenticeships program has tripled in four years, with 48 students involved in the program. The vocational education program has 180 enrolled students.