INDUSTRY GAINS EARLY RETURNS FOR AUSTRALIAN MANUFACTURERS

An update on the progress of the five-year plan was delivered at the BMAA AGM in November where Steve Quirk, director of The Frontline Group, was joined by a panel of industry experts from both the BMAA’s own membership and Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector.

Quirk provided a summary of progress with the program in Australia, starting with how it is contextualised for blinds, awnings, shutters, security screens and motorisation across a wide range of businesses and regions to help promote a program that genuinely meets the needs of students and the businesses they represent.

“Our pilot presents a very interesting challenge for training. Eighty four percent (84%) of the people who are undertaking the training program in Victoria come from a background where English is not their first language,” Quirk said.

“That creates very significant dimensions for us in designing learning and what works best.”

“Unsurprisingly for us, it tells us that social learning, the classroom-style learning, is less effective, but what does work is solitary learning.”

Kerry Bell, the Head of Training Design and Development Frontline Academy, presented the program in its current format, face-to-face delivery, with combined classroom and on the job components.

“For the pilot here in Victoria, we looked at the cohort of students that we were working with and we identified that an online blended solution wasn’t going to work with the people that we’re working with.”

“These are people who use their hands and all their tools so they benefit from a series of workshop options, and a lot of one on one coaching, and lot of mentoring and training within the workplace.”

“We also want to offer a series of classroom-based options for people who want to come out from the business and be able to focus on their learning. We’ve actually turned our program around a little bit from being very classroom based to adapting to suit the business that we’re working in.”

Bell then presented on a new program that has been specifically developed for leaders in the blinds, awnings, shutters and screens industry, with training developed for supervisors and business leaders to support both their supervision of apprentices as well as fine tune their leadership skills.

In consultation with Mary Campbell, the Director of Development at wholesale blind manufacturer Total Window Concepts, the Certificate IV in Leadership and Management was developed, targeted at supervisors and leaders in the sector.

“To date, a cohort of students have already completed this training as a pilot. This was delivered as a six-month intensive program, with participants completing a range of workshops, selfstudy, self-paced and guided assessment,” Bell said.

“Rather than delivering a non-accredited program, we spoke with the businesses that we work with, and we actually decided that delivering a formal Certificate IV in Leadership and Management was a really good way to not only train the supervisors, and coaches, and mentors that are working with people within the businesses, but also a good opportunity for them to recognise their own skills.”

“The program that we’ve been delivering over six months focuses quite heavily on personal effectiveness; how to plan for your own development, how to plan operations within your business and be an effective leader.”

MEGT Apprenticeship Network Provider Bethany Spearing also spoke, giving attendees an overview of apprenticeship employer assistance in the form of government funding for eligible staff enrolled in training. She provided some case studies of employers in different states that have received funding to cover the time required for apprentices to attend training and have additional support in the workplace as trainees or apprentice staff members.

“You make contact with BMAA, Frontline Group, and from there, they pass the details on to us where we determine the eligibility.” “When I say that, we don’t determine the eligibility for whether that employee can do the apprenticeship or traineeship because there’s nothing stopping someone from doing an apprenticeship or traineeship.”

“Frontline will notify us someone that needs to be signed up and then we do all the eligibility checks. We can let you know in advance, or more often than not, it’s sometimes better to wait for our local representative to come out. That way, they can actually sit down with you and talk through the contract.”

“The training contract gets signed by all parties. That’s all parties that are involved – so the employer, the Australian apprentice, and the registered training organisation.”

“The Frontline Group, BMAA and MEGT, we work very closely to make sure you don’t have to rack your brain and try and work through all these initiatives.”

Spearing said that once the contract is lodged MEGT will send out an email to officially notify of the eligibility of incentives that can be tapped to which can equate up to about $4,000.00 per person.

After hearing from students enrolled in both Certificate III and IV, Quirk wrapped the day with the upcoming pilot planned for Queensland: an accelerated Cert III Blinds and Awnings program for experienced personnel where a program that can take up to four years to complete can be condensed into six months of intensive learning and assessment for those with significant experience in the industry or other similar formal qualifications.

“We expect to see an update to the training package (managed by IBSA) in the next six to twelve months, where we hope the course will be streamlined with a set of core skills and specialised skills, making it more flexible and adaptable,” Quirk added.