Churchill Education Blog

In this interview, Dave Jenkins shares how he succeeded with this Recognition of  Prior Learning experience with Churchill as a partner and how it has elevated his career.

Hi Dave, it’s Julie Grant from Churchill Education.

Hi, how are you?

Good, how are you?

Great, thanks.

Excellent. Well, I’m glad I’ve got you.  I thought I’d just give you a quick call and  find out what your experience was like with Churchill, more importantly though, I’d love to hear your story and the difference that it’s made for you.

Well a colleague of mine first suggested I go with Churchill.   We are both ex Defence…he said  “Look, go with these guys because they have an understanding of the quality of the training that we do within the service”.

Defence training, is a very high level isn’t it?

That’s right, and it’s not necessarily recognised out in the workforce.

In the private sector?

Yes, that’s right, Defence training is very in-depth training but not often understood.  So that was the first key reason I got involved with Churchill. I was working on my Diploma of OH&S at the time, so I spoke to Churchill, I sent my evidence, they offered a no-obligation quote which they completed no problem.  So, I requested that they RPL me through the Diploma.  At the same time, I couldn’t actually afford the cost at that point so  we negotiated with my employer to pay the remaining costs.

Excellent. And you had three Statements of Attainment?

That was my first exposure to Churchill, I then arranged to pick up a further three Statements. That was three units out of the Diploma in Management, and the fourth of those actually came with the OH&S qualification.  Now because I’m a trainer with my employer I had three units of competency that I was required to personally hold so that I could train & assess others on those units.  We were in a dire situation with one of our key plants, I urgently needed to get the plant managers competent in those particular units, in order for them to meet the requirements, otherwise the client was going to shut down the entire plant.

That’s a big deal isn’t it? 

Absolutely,  I made a mercy dash out to this particular plant, went to work on RPL’ing the plant manager that was out there, getting him up to speed, up to the drilling competency standard. But those were the three units which I could not sign off, as I didn’t hold them myself.  So we sent the SOS off to Churchill Education, who joined in the rescue.  So, at the time that I was making up the RPL tools and assignments for our Plant Managers, I was being RPL’ed by Churchill so I could sign off.  After investigating the tools and assignments Churchill awarded me with the competency.  All within a couple of days I had the RPL tools validated, I had the manager through the competency, and I completed my competency so I could sign our Plant Manager off also, allowing our plant to continue operation.

So you saved the day basically is what you’re saying? You ran the gauntlet and you saved the day, Dave? That’s Great!

Well, without Churchill playing the game as well it wouldn’t have happened.

That’s great. Good on you.

Oh, it was just – it all worked in well because everyone worked together.

And they do here at Churchill, they really partner you and they really take a personal interest.

Yes, that’s right.  I intend to obtain my TAE Diploma, that’s 10 units of competency I believe.   So I’ll be sending through details about projects I’m working on to Churchill to ascertain whether I have enough evidence to pick up that Diploma also.  My employer will organise to pay for this qualification.

Your employer is obviously seeing the benefits?

Yeah. The company’s been quite good. It’s working quite well actually.

So have your qualifications changed your career?

I don’t know that it’s changed my career, but it’s certainly elevated my career.

That’s great.

Yeah.

It sounds like you enjoyed the experience with Churchill? You’ve obviously made some life-long friends as well?

Yeah I have a big rap for Churchill, I’m really pleased with the way they look after every aspect, it has been fantastic. They’ve been very courteous, they’ve been willing to help in any way, shape or form that they can. There has been no delays, when I’ve sent the evidence in it’s been a quick process.  I haven’t got anything bad to say about Churchill at all, it’s been a very positive experience.

That’s great Dave, I’m so pleased for you.

Thank you.

That’s really good work, isn’t it?

Yeah, it is.

Your story is great and what you’ve done is really good work. I hope you’re proud of yourself?

Yeah, I am I guess.

Alright Dave, thanks so much for your time , I really appreciate it.

No problem at all, thank you

Alright Dave, take care and thank you

Bye.

Bye.

END OF INTERVIEW

Neville is ex Defence Force who has gained a number of qualifications with Churchill Education  utilising RPL (Recognised Prior Learning). These include Diploma of Paramedical Science, Diploma of Securities & Risk Assessment, Advanced Diploma of OH&S Govt, Diploma of Management.

Interview with Neville M

I‘m currently with BHP Billiton in the South West of Western Australia, and I am providing emergency services coverage for them on their refinery operation. I am sort of doing one or two things at the moment, so I’m working full-time at Worsley and I suppose – honestly thanks to Churchill – I run my own small consultancy business on the side and we will turnover a reasonable operational profit through the financial year. So, yeah, those things, plus two kids and a wife, keep me fairly busy.

You are busy.

Yeah.

So you’ve obviously got your time management well and truly sorted?

Yeah, I think the Mrs takes care of that the majority of the time.

Good on her. We keep the World running, don’t we, us Mrs?

Well, I think you’re dead right, yeah, I think you’re right.

So, you were originally military?

I was, yeah. I was Core Infantry for the Defence Force and I served for about nine years. When I left is pretty much when I got in contact with Randall. And Randall was referred to me through a colleague and I was quite fortunate in that a lot of my early efforts were very, very successful and Randall helped me with successful applications for Recognition of Prior Learning through to a couple of accreditations that assisted me in moving quite quickly through the mining industry.

So when you came out of the military, you obviously had heaps and heaps of skills but no pieces of paper that gave people permission to believe that you had those skills – is that how it works, with military?

Yeah, that’s actually absolutely correct. There was a significant deficit between what I had experience in and what I was qualified to do, and Randall helped me bridge that gap really quite quickly and quite successfully. To a point where once I had received one accreditation with Randall I was then providing service in the mining industry with a private company in the Middle East with one of the metropolitan Fire Departments delivering training for road crash rescue or motor vehicle  accident rescue.

Wow. So what qualifications did you get from Churchill, which ones did they organise for you? You’ve got quite a lot, haven’t you?

Yeah. So initially, it was a Diploma of Paramedical Science and putting together an application for recognition of prior learning was something that if you needed to do by yourself would have taken a significant amount of time. But when Randall provided the service he did the footwork and also ensured that you really had a conservation of effort, so when you were doing something you knew that it was deliberately focused towards satisfying an outstanding element that needed to be addressed in order to achieve the competency. So it was very directed work, which made it very economical.

That accreditation really did open up doors for me, so I found myself with really quite eager employers to the point where some people were surprised that I was applying for entry-level positions. Yeah, I was really, really fortunate, as I still do feel fortunate, in that I found that my qualifications not only carried weight but when I looked at the units of competency they were things that I knew certainly within my own experience that I could achieve for a client or in front of an employer.

Well, look, I think for me my interaction with Randall and Churchill Education has been that the foundations of my business have been on soft and hard evidence. And when I say that it’s important, I mean my clients now as a business owner can see that I have not only experience but also accreditation to support my endorsement for application on their site. That’s one aspect, but second of all, that once I’ve got that ticket onto their site that I can back that up with real world services and a very, very high quality product that would be referred word of mouth. And I think that’s probably where we see 95% of our business. So, without that soft evidence, without that administrative support that I received from Randall, I would say with all confidence that my success in small business, it wouldn’t be to the manner it is now without his support and without his service.

You’re a full-on success story. You should be proud of yourself, what a lot you’ve achieved.

I feel really grateful that I’ve had the chance to interact, like I said, with Churchill and with Randall. So I’m always quite positive in referring on and then to ensure that his service gets to the right people.

That’s great. You know, I think it means more if someone hears something from someone like themselves, your words and everything you’ve said are straight from the heart, and when it’s real it reads real.

Yeah. Look, to give you an idea especially why I’m such a sincere advocate of Randall’s group is that, you know, first of all his – and this is by no means a stretch, you know – his service, his friendship and his partnership in the last seven years of my professional life has enabled me to, you know, go from entry level to superintendent specialist. And then on a personal level I have been able to satisfy some quite significant wants and needs by, you know, going out and providing a service to clients of my own, which has been tremendously satisfying. Life has balanced so well for me and obviously there’s been some personal effort in that, but my journey wouldn’t have got me to the point where it is now without Randall’s assistance. So, like I said, a very sincere advocate.

Good on you. I am so pleased for you. What a great story.

Oh, thank you.

You’re not going to get rid of me now, I’ll be stalking you every so often to see what’s going on.

Well, I look forward to it.

Oh, I do too.

Well, look, I really do wish you the best of luck and, like I said, anything that I can do please let me know – I’m always happy to help out.

Thanks Neville. Stay in touch, I want to hear what’s going on with you and what you’re up to and what’s next on your horizon.

You got it, no problems at all. And look, best of luck with it all.

Thank you.

And I hope everything goes really well for you.

Thanks Neville, you’re the best. Thanks so much.

Lovely to talk to you Jules. All the best, have a great day.

You too. Bye-bye.

Bye.

END OF INTERVIEW

When I first started 18 months ago we had about 40 staff.  Now we’ve probably got 230 and getting another 30 on Monday.  So we’re madly getting information packs together and doing their timesheets and getting prepared.

Well, if you’re working in the HR area it’s no wonder you’re working double time at the moment.

Yes.

Wow, that’s huge. So have you always worked in the HR field?

No, I started off basically just doing office work and then I  had my own business doing MYOB, doing a lot of the business side of it. And then when we moved, we were travelling around Australia so we sort of finished up what we wanted to do in Bundaberg, where we’re from in Queensland, and then we took off for a few months selling around Australia.  I put my resume in for a HR position and got the  payroll role and then ended up in the HR department. 

This is where you got all the experience from though, because you’ve had your own business, you’ve done  the MYOB, you’ve done all your own HR, you’ve done all your own management  your own purchasing and – a really good background.

Yeah, well, the travelling business was good because we met lots of different people.

So, how did you get involved with getting qualifications? Was it along the lines of you had all the experience in running a small business and running your own business and all the office administration work that you’d done previously. So was it then a matter of saying “Okay,  I’ve got all this experience, I’ve got all these skills, but I don’t have the piece of paper and the qualifications to give people permission to believe that I can do this work”?

Yes.

Is that what happened?

Yes, that’s exactly how it is, yeah. Without having that, you know the HR certificate 4 and yeah, it just sort of feels a bit better. Yeah. I’ve got all, you know, the business and the payroll – I can do payroll with my eyes shut – but this is a different part. It’s like going away from the business, sort of, getting more involved in human resources.

Nowadays employers want to see a Diploma or a Certificate or something, don’t they?

Yes, that’s right. I mean, my goal now is to be HR Manager and I need the Diploma in that to be able to achieve that with my employer.

So, you’ve got a Certificate IV in Human Resources Management?

Yes

And a Certificate IV in OH&S?

I’m currently doing that right now.

Right, and you want to do your Diploma in HR next?

Yes.

You’ve been busy.

Yeah, very busy.

How did you find the process?

Yeah, well, it was just great really, laid out very clearly, I understood the process like, yeah, I found it really good.

Excellent. Oh good so you’re going to come back and do some more?

Yeah. So at the moment, I’ll just leave it until I finish my OH&S or even just get closer to finishing it.  As now we’re writing procedures for this area – if anyone was to come in there and sit down…there’s going to be a procedure of everything and how to do it.

So you’ve already started implementing what you’ve learned?

Yeah

Now that you’ve got the qualifications it’s okay for you to implement it and put it all into procedures and practices?

Yeah

Congratulations.

Good work.

It’s good, very good.

I’m really pleased I could find out your story from you Rochelle, you should be very proud.

Thank you.

Thanks Rochelle, thanks so much.

END OF INTERVIEW

I’m speaking to Tracey McPhee from RP Data. Tracey, are you happy to chat to us around your experiences with Churchill and the training that your team and yourself have received over, what’s it, the last year we’ve been working with you I think?

Yes. I’m happy to participate.

Okay, so where do you want to start? Let’s chat a bit about the training that we did as the group training for your customer contact guys. The qualification you did there was the Certificate IV in Customer Contact?

Correct.

How did you find that experience and, more importantly I suppose, how did your team find that experience?

Okay, that’s a pretty big question because what we chose to do is, normally a lot of these would be done individually one-on-one basis but we chose to do it as a group, because these people all work together in the same field and would all benefit from what they’d learn from the Certificate. So their experience by doing it in a group was, a lot of their comments were very positive because they not only learnt from yourself or from the booklets, they actually learnt from each other. And I know it brought some people out of their shell because some people were rather quiet and reserved and stayed in the background, and even their experience, they stated that that was positive and they learnt things out of it. Yeah, they really enjoyed the experience and got some pointers out of it and I see some of that coming out in today’s work.

That’s excellent, you’re actually seeing some transfer of the skills from the training room to the workplace?

Yes,we do. Sometimes it’s a little bit slow with different bits and pieces. The obvious things, like health and safety and stress management and that, they picked up straight away and implemented it in the workplace if it wasn’t here already. So that was really good, but you see some of the other things come out where it’s about how to share information, a different way that they’re approaching customer interactions, if there’s an escalation that has to happen you’ll notice that some of the individuals will jump up and say “Well, look, we need to think about this and how best to look after the customer, let’s look at what happened to them”. So you can hear them actually going through a process and working together to make things happen, so it’s quite good to see.

So what made you choose the Customer Contact module over any of the others that were on offer?

Basically because it had the requirements in there, the content was what we needed. We needed them to learn about customers and how to deal with customers, and the content of that course basically covered off everything that we needed really.

And is there any reason why you chose Churchill above any other training organisation to deliver that?

In all honesty, it was chosen because it was offered and it was the only one offered at the time. But, in saying that, just because it was the only one, if I had have had a choice I hope I would have chosen Churchill because, honestly, it’s been a great experience and you guys have followed-up all the time and chased us when we get a bit behind, which is rightly so. You’ve done a great job.

Would you say that the training was in any way structured specifically for your organisation or was it just generically delivered?

Oh no, definitely structured. As I said in the beginning, first of all we asked to do it in a group when it’s normally delivered one-on-one. And the trainer, Gordon, and I spoke with Catherine as well, everyone was quite happy to work it that way. And also, there were some components like the manager, being myself, took over. So Gordon, you were great at working with us, working with myself on that, and helping us to put it into our everyday work terms so everybody understood it and really understood how it would impact us and what change it could make to us. So no, absolute flexibility.

At the moment we’re also working with some other members of your team, more on the one-on-one basis, and we spoke a little bit about that model before. Which way do you think works best for your organisation, or do you think that mixture’s really good?

I think the mixture’s very good. I think we need to keep both available and we need to utilise both because sometimes you have a group of people and there may be one individual in there that needs that extra time or needs to do it separately for a while, and that may be that they may only do a couple of modules on their own first to get the hang of it and then join the group, or it may be that we choose to take that person through individually. But I think definitely we need to have the option to do both.

Excellent. Now I know that you’re also studying your own, you’re doing a Diploma of Management aren’t you?

Yes, I am. I am, very slowly.

You have different challenges obviously around getting the workload through and getting the training done. Are there any experiences there that you’d like to share in terms of the training that you got from Churchill? Or did that you’re getting from Churchill, seeing as its ongoing?

It is still ongoing and in all honesty I can only commend what you’re doing, because you’re doing my training Gordon, is you’re trying to get me on-board to do the next module and everything. But it’s more so from my side, it’s just around the timing and getting something done and getting it completed. But I commend you for even having the patience to keep chasing me for that, to be quite honest. I’m not leading by a very good example, I might add, to my staff.

That’s been part of a whole heap of promotions and various other things that you’ve got, so we should congratulate you on that.

Thank you.

Again, do you find all that a worthwhile experience with that or is it something that you –

Absolutely.

Yeah, you’re happy with it all?

I would use you again any day. The experience we’ve had with Catherine, she’s been really good at coming in and getting people signed up when we need it done and making sure we know what courses are available. She’s been flexible with her time and looking at different ways we can get different subjects in if we need to, and then yourself, Gordon, absolutely been brilliant, very patient and understanding. But also thinking about what we need and opening it up to us and challenging us to think of it for ourselves and not telling us what to learn, just giving us that suggestion and letting them learn from there. So that’s been a great experience, and the people that follow-up on the phones – and unfortunately I don’t remember their names – but the people that follow-up, “How’s it going? What’s going on?”. And now I’m dealing with Melody to look after the Melbourne team, she’s been brilliant as well trying to chase me to get them started, and that hasn’t been a great experience from our perspective but your patience once again has been brilliant and understanding around getting that happening. So I’d use you any day.

Now with Melody and what she’s going to do with your Melbourne team, we’re going to do something slightly differently there again aren’t we? As far as I recall we’re going to be doing that now as phone conference calls and things like that to get those –

Yes, we are. We are and we’ve actually started, lo and behold. The guys have actually now logged in and we’ve booked our first meeting, so Melody is going to be doing that one-on-one remotely. So Melody and I have agreed to catch up more often and find out how that actually progresses and then what we’ll do is do it as a little group so that we’re all together and we get some feedback and a little bit of that team effort going. The challenge will be doing it remotely though.

Yeah, and I think that some of the things that we do do for some of our other clients, so it will be interesting to get your feedback to see how that works as opposed to the group work and the one-on-one stuff that I’m doing with yourself and the other members of your staff. If I were to ask you a really difficult question, and if you don’t mind: with Churchill Education, I think we pride ourselves on being able to do things differently. Would you say that we meet that and is there anything that you would want differently from us?

No, there is nothing that I would want differently at this point in time or that’s come up. Absolutely I think you’ve been very flexible in doing it differently because quite often this is a criteria that needs to be met by a business from training, and it’s a criteria from the training business to deliver it, and that’s actually how it comes across. And some previous experience I’ve had with other trainers is walk in, deliver a module, yes, they’ve answered all the questions and hand it back. But at all times you guys have always asked us how we want to do it, how is it working for us, and what different things do we want to do? And a great example of doing it differently is we asked to do something a little bit out of the box with health and safety and did like a skit thing or something to make it a little bit exciting, and set up a desk that looked atrocious etc. And Gordon, you were great with working with that and getting the guys to learn it that way. So absolutely, I think you should pride yourself on being different and approaching it differently and not sticking within the box.

Excellent, thank you. Is there anything else that you want to share with us about your experience working with Churchill? Any other issues, any other things that you like about what we do, don’t like?

No, I don’t have any issue at all and I think I’ve said several times – and I don’t say it lightly, and I don’t say it, because I get nothing out of this, I say it because I mean it – it’s been a positive experience for us, and I would not hesitate to use you guys again and again wherever I’m working because you’ve done it well and you offer a lot of good things that we need.

Excellent, well thank you Tracey, and thanks so much for your time, really appreciate it. I know you’ve got a really busy day ahead of you. So I’d like to thank you very much and thank you for using Churchill and look forward to catching up with you on the rest of your qualification.

My pleasure, thank you

Thanks Tracey.

END OF INTERVIEW

Today I’m speaking to Trisha, who is the coordinator of a number of staff at the Cerebral Palsy League, and her role in that involves managing various teams and individuals and part of that role involves organising training for their professional development. So, welcome Trisha and thank you very much for your time. I want to ask about the kind of training you do organise and a bit about what your role involves with organising the training for your staff at Cerebral Palsy League.

Not a problem. The roles that we have are really around sales, even though we are selling Art Union tickets and asking people for donations, it’s a way of fundraising to help us to deliver support to people with disabilities in our community.

So what sort of courses have you organised training for, for your staff?

At the moment they’ve been around a Cert IV in Business Sales. We’ve also had a Cert IV in Customer Contact. We’ve had a Cert IV in Frontline Management as well and I think we’re looking at also a Cert 4 in TAE.

Excellent. Now I understand you’ve done group training with your staff as well as some individual – is that right or have you done more of one than the other?

Yes, we do a bit of both. We have group training sessions and we also do individual training sessions.

And how has that worked from your point of view, as far as coordinating? Has there been a lot that you’ve had to involve or has a lot of it been done for you by the staff at Churchill Education?

Really, they have been absolutely wonderful. A lot of it has worked in really well. Within our roles on the phone we have to have the time on the phone to make the money that we need so any time off the phone is a cost to us. So it’s been worked so well that the guys have great workshop sessions with Gordon, the trainer, they have one-to-one time with him, they sometimes have group time with him, and it is worked in with their schedule. A lot of their assessments are done on the job, so as their role, and so it has worked really well.

Great. As you said, time is money and when you’re trying to coordinate a team –

Absolutely.

Maximising the time they actually are working as well, you want to minimise downtime with training. Group training can work well sometimes too, that you can actually have them all done in a single session as well sometimes.

Yes, that’s true. But I think also, too, it’s good to have that one-to-one time, so individuals – because all of our guys can pick different units that they want to do, so they have that one-to-one time where they get that attention and that support.

That’s great. So you’re allowing the flexibility for them to work on their own individual needs -

Absolutely.

Within the same qualification. That’s great that tailoring can still be there for that. And how have your staff found the process, have they found it quite straightforward to complete?

Absolutely. All of our staff that have gone through have just been really happy. For them, I think, it enhances a lot of the skills that they’re using at the moment in their roles but also, too, it gives them additional skills for, if it’s career enhancement in the future, if they want to move on within the organisation or externally. But it also gives them a sense of that we’re putting back into them a sense of satisfaction in their role, which is really important as well.

So how did you find out about Churchill Education? Is this the first place you had gone to for your training?

I think what was happening at the time was, being a Not-For-Profit we don’t have the ability to pay the large wages to attract staff. So what I was looking for was a way to upskill my staff but also, too, to have a retention tool which was enabling me to retain staff. I met with the people from Churchill Education and was very impressed.

I believe you’re even thinking about perhaps doing some study or Recognition of Prior Learning to complete your own qualifications too, a new qualification?

Yes, that’s correct. I did my TAA in July last year. I completed it, but the course has now changed, it’s a TAE qualification. So, for me, training is an integral part of what I do, so I was looking at maybe RPLing and getting that upgraded to a TAE.

Great. Well, it sounds like the team there are very lucky to have someone who’s so on-board and values training so much, Trisha. I think you’re a wonderful manager to them all.

I think it’s part of giving back. You know, my staff work really hard and, as I said, in a call centre environment retaining staff can be difficult. So I look at a lot of tools and a lot of things that enable me to put the, I guess, the effort into my staff and to give something back to them and through training I’m able to do that. So they also gain great benefits from it, it broadens the and it really helps them to develop, but at the same time it’s a win-win, because for me their skills are improved which means that they raise more money, we’re able to do more and that’s a great bonus as well.

Absolutely. It’s such a wonderful organisation too, such great work that you do there. That’s fantastic to hear that.

Absolutely. We can see the difference in a staff member who’s been through the training, especially around business sales and customer contact. You can see a difference in their results as they’re going through the training and when they’ve completed it.

That’s wonderful to hear that feedback as well, because obviously if you are investing time and money in training you want to actually know and see that the results are coming through with your staff being happier, more confident and more able to convert those sales, as you said.

Absolutely. So their KPIs, they’re able to meet their KPIs and to improve. So we set a benchmark for the team and after going through training we look at that benchmark. And our team have been able to raise that benchmark, which is really important. I think it’s really important for any team, and I guess especially in a sales role, for morale and for that sense of creating a really good culture within a team. For me, I’ve found this to be a really great way to do that and the partnerships that I have with Churchill Education has been really important in that. When we had a group that graduated, Churchill Education brought along the caps, the gowns, we did an afternoon tea, and we celebrated that as a team. We had higher management come in from the organisation who took part in that and we had key stakeholders, through Churchill and through everywhere, take part in that. And it was a great way to see the difference that training can make to a team, to an individual, but also to the organisation itself.

Yeah, I saw the photos from that day, it was a lovely celebration you had. So congratulations to the team. It was fantastic. And as you say, lovely to cap it off and reward everyone.

Oh absolutely. And I think everybody ­– because it was a great day to acknowledge people like Gordon, the wonderful hard work that he does with the team, but also Catherine from Churchill Education. To also acknowledge our wonderful trainees because they have to put in the work as well, and so they do a really hard job and it was a great way to celebrate that success. And I think for other members in the team who hadn’t gone through, or who hadn’t looked at that process or hadn’t put their hand up to do it, for them it was a great way of saying “Well, gee, look at that”. It was an incentive. And on a completely human level, for a lot of our guys, they had never ever had the opportunity to wear a cap and a gown and be part of a graduation ceremony, so for them it was a really big milestone.

Beautiful, that’s a lovely story to hear. Thank you so much. It’s all been very good for you and wonderful work you’re doing there at the Cerebral Palsy League. I won’t hold you up from getting on with that very important work, but thank you very much for taking the time to share your story and I hope that we can continue to help you in the future with your staff.

Absolutely. Look, I’m really happy with the partnership I have with Churchill Education, the work that we do, because I think it’s really important as an organisation but also in the community, we need to skill our workforce and that’s really important for us to do.

Thank you so much Trisha.

END OF INTERVIEW

Thanks Kate,  you worked with David Kirkby on getting your Certificate IV Business is that correct?

Yes, that’s right.

And how did you find it?  How was the whole process?

Yeah, it was good. It was great. I think, sort of, it was easy, you know, the modules and what-not -

Because you already had the experience really, didn’t you?, but needed to do some training to complete?

Yeah, that’s right. You know, the modules were great and every time I met with Dave it was wonderful. You know, we went through things. It didn’t drag on either. He was straight to the point, very thorough in explaining my traineeship. At the end of finishing it I applied for the Project Support Officer position which I am in now, which is a full-time permanent position. I applied for that at the end of my traineeship and I was successful.

And was that helped by your Certificate?

Yeah, I think so. Yeah, absolutely, no doubt.

You had the experience you needed to get that promotion and to get that Project Support Officer role?

Yeah.

But  getting that Certificate IV Business just gave your employers permission to believe that you knew how to do the job?

Yes, exactly.

Sometimes that’s all you need. You’ve got all the experience but you just need that piece of paper, that proof.

Absolutely, yeah. And I think too, it’s a refresher to because for Aboriginal people, Indigenous people, I think that a lot of us were sort of getting into small business and having something like this yeah, it could sort of, you know -sort of give you that grounding you know to want to further my studies in that area but absolutely it really helps.

Maybe you’ll inspire a few more yet?

Yeah.

I reckon you might. Sounds great,Are you proud of yourself?

Yeah, I am, I am. You know, I’ve come a long way so.

Do you think you’ll go on and do a Diploma now too?

Yeah, I think so, yeah. I’ve actually been talking to my manager and told her that I’d like to further my studies, continue studying and she’s very supportive.

I’m so pleased for you, really, it’s just so good to speak to someone who’s had a great experience

It’s actually really good to be able to speak to someone and just give you my feedback

When you do decide to get your next qualification make sure you call me and tell me what you’re up to, I’d enjoy catching up again

Yeah, well I have your details now. It was great to talk

Thanks Kate, take care

Will do, you too, Bye

Bye

END OF INTERVIEW

Mary Cavanough talks to Melody McNulty-Churchill Education Business Mentor

Interview with Mary Cavanough who completed Diploma of Business Administration & Diploma of Management with Workplace Training.

Trainers come in, there was one before and it’s just , you know, come in, do your job, go. She doesn’t talk like you Melody, and I’m fascinated, I wanted to learn like –

Yeah, you were like a little sponge? 

Record all that information, yeah, printing all that stuff. I learnt heaps but it was stuff that I was already seeing as well but it was like detailed stuff. I’ve seen my bosses management style, others’ management style.  But yeah, the others that just come in it’s like, just, you know, “We’ve got to get you through this, do your job, sign off” and not really teaching, they’re just teaching out of books. Like you read the stuff and that’s it, there’s no interaction, and “Oh right”. It’s like a teacher – like a classroom in high school and you do that because you’ve got to be there.

And I guess that’s why we call ourselves mentors rather than trainers 

Yeah.

We actually try and help mentor you through. You can learn stuff out of books but, you know, you can do that without me.

Yeah. Well, I couldn’t could I?

Yes, you could. But yeah, it’s just that I guess our chats were just trying to make it more real world.

Yeah. That’s like with the boys out on site, there’s only one or two that will actually “Do you know why you’re putting this much stuff there?” “Well, no, because we’re told to”. But there’s reasons why that is and we’ve got mentors that have just got supervisors “Just do your job”.

Yeah. So how do you think it will help you in your role, doing these qualifications.

I like to think I was doing all those things that I learnt, or if not, or it’s just made me see things a different way. But there’s stuff that I did learn, I thought. Like, everything that I was learning I saw in people here, hopefully thought I saw that in myself, if not I’ve changed to those styles, and just little extra information that was good.

So have you tried putting some of this into practice since you’ve done it?

Yeah. Like the management styles, when I get a chance, or if I am doing that – I like to think I was doing that – but it adds. You could do it this way or say it this way or – I’ve taken heaps out of all these little, I’ve retained it all. I’m like “Oh, I like that”.

Good on you.

Yeah, it’s good. Because I see it in John, that’s how he treats us and all of that stuff was like word-for-word for ..

What he does?

Hmmm.

Yeah. What do you think in the training worked best for you?

Just overall?

Yeah, what do you think worked the best for you, for your learning styles?

For my learning style – or lack of.

You don’t have a lack of!

Your mentoring and the way – I’ve written it a couple of times, like in the surveys or when someone’s rung up for “How’s your training going?” – that was cool, that was good. And I would just say “Well, I can’t keep up with it, I can only do it when Melody was coming out” yeah, and when you emailed us. No, it’s the attention. It’s the attention, the listening, the giving the advice, the mentoring – that’s what I took in for me. And I think that would be the same for anyone else. It’s like old friends having a conversation but you’re actually learning and gaining stuff.

Do you know what you’ll probably find though? Is a lot of stuff we talked about you already knew it, you just didn’t know you knew it.

Yeah.

Honestly, you think about it. You think about some of our conversation and you start to think about how much you contributed to those conversations.

Yeah, but you drew it out of me because I didn’t know, like “Oh, is this what you meant here?”.

Yeah. So do you feel you have more confidence?

I was already confident, but yeah. Well, I thought I was and yeah, I am. I feel really smart.

You are.

Oh, thank you.

Yeah, because I think we just clicked. I always looked forward to coming here and it was always welcoming, I always walked in and heard “Yay, Mel”. So it always helps if you’re like welcomed in.

Yeah, but I think it’s your training style as well because, you know, we see trainers come and go here, we had one guy who is like textbook, old school. A different approach, I guess they still learn the stuff but in a different way, but whether they retain it or not?

I guess for me, I guess I try and inspire people, you know …Try and let them think “Hey, how would I do this? What can I do? What have I got?”. Yeah, the aim – you can read out of books and you could do that. My role I think is to help inspire you, give you someone that you can bounce ideas off and basically, yeah, be your mentor rather than your trainer.

So what’s my next course?….

END OF INTERVIEW

Alumni, Trish Thompson, shares how going through the Recognition of Prior Learning process with us showcased her knowledge and her experience. Listen to how Trish found that your experience can really make a difference when you work with us … and hear Trish’s thoughts on why holding a qualification is so important.

Where do you go to learn about leadership?

Conferences, forums, seminars? Or perhaps you prefer to read the latest business writing on offer? Enrolled in the Diploma of Management with us?

Ever thought you might learn such lessons at a music festival?

Seriously, there’s nothing like a good list for making you feel that life is under control, that all things are marching along to the Grand Gates of Success, and that you can still get your ducks in a row … or your list in chronological order.

Of course, there’s also nothing like a list for making you feel like you’re a dismal failure … all those single entries, mounting up to stare back at you when you don’t get them done.

But this is about great lists for business …. and particularly, our favourites focusing on colleagues and customers.

First things first – colleagues. The team on your business bus are so important because no team on the bus means no customers.

So, I was checking out Seth Godin’s blog and couldn’t resist sharing this list:

Simple five step plan for just about everyone and everything

The number of people you need to ask for permission keeps going down:

1. Go, make something happen.

2. Do work you’re proud of.

3. Treat people with respect.

4. Make big promises and keep them.

5. Ship it out the door.

When in doubt, see #1.

We’ve been talking with our team about owning your seat on the bus.

NOTE TO SELF: Go, make something happen. 

Loving it!

Doesn’t seem to get much simpler than a 5 point list.

Well, not much simpler until you read Stew Leonard’s 2 point list …

Simple two step plan for every customer you have, now and in the future

Rule #1 — The Customer is Always Right

Rule #2 – If the Customer is Ever Wrong, Re-Read Rule #1

So, if you are talking to any of our team from Train to Succeed, you’ll know that they’re going to make something happen for you and your professional development needs … recognition of prior learning credits for your life skills will never be this easy. And even better, at least while you’re our customer, you’ll always be right.

Not sure that will hold up with your partner though …