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 avec esprit

Contact Merv

The avec esprit program enables you to communicate with the person who designed it, so you might as well know a bit about him.

Merv Edmunds left school early and worked as a carpenter, steel rigger, and factory supervisor before becoming a teacher. He taught in primary and secondary schools for about twenty years, with much of this time involved in curriculum design and student enterprise. He is a trained trade instructor, holds a degree in Social Science and in 1993 was awarded the Outstanding Contribution to Education Award for his work with young people.

He has designed and coordinated a wide range of curriculum programs including:

• Talent Afloat, Australia's first off-shore sailing excursion that became the subject of a TV documentary
• Young Traders, a student enterprise program that funded student travel to many interstate and international locations (one group built a fibreglass sports car, sold it and travelled to America for three weeks)
• Plasform, a plastics technology program that won The Age/Macquarie Library Curriculum Excellence Award in 1992.
• on track, a program for early school leavers and kids that don't like school
• Tally Ho, a special program for street kids and others 'on the loose', and his latest:
• avec esprit, a project-based personal development and work skills program

In between jobs Merv has travelled the world, built a small bi-plane, designed and built a yacht to take his family sailing the Barrier Reef, and made a fiberglass sportscar. His current interest is in the development of what he calls the 'avec quartet of personal skills' - awareness, visualisation, emotion management and creativity. His other interests include playing the clarinet, reading, further study, and counselling.