Emerging leaders good for business
GOTAFE is now offering contextualised training and a major employer in the region, Mawsons has been among the first to benefit.
Mawsons Concrete and Quarries, which employs 550 people across 80 Victorian and NSW worksites, enrolled 12 managers in GOTAFE’s new Emerging Leaders training program.
Mawsons learning and development manager Cathy Moon said the company was seeing the benefits of the non-accredited training program and planned to engage a second cohort in 2023.
"Our company has an active learning culture, and we value strong internal and external relationships with leadership which gives the best customer experience. The Emerging Leaders program at GOTAFE was really well received by our staff and we are seeing the benefits of what they learned."
Mrs Moon said participants were selected from 11 sites, deemed as mentors for future managers and 18- to 24-year-olds who will undertake the company’s cadetship program.
“We identified 12 managers at different sites who are great operators in their field and willing to build their leadership skills,” Mrs Moon said.
“We want them to be mentors for our future managers, and for cadets in our new cadetship program which will start next year in four divisions: concrete, quarry, technical and transport.”
The Emerging Leaders participants travelled up to 3.5 hours from 11 locations to attend the six half-day sessions at GOTAFE in Shepparton.
“I would strongly recommend that this course continues to be rolled out to employees who are looking to progress into leadership positions,” participant Simon Taylor said.
Another participant Adam Goodes said for him a “key session was around the different personality types and the best way to communicate with each personality you may have in your team”.
The fast-track GOTAFE leadership program is tailored to the needs of regional businesses and industries, with Mawsons’ employees praising the contextualised delivery to its workforce.
GOTAFE Acting Coordinator Professional and Creative Services, Kerri Symes said sessions were usually scheduled every six weeks for client groups to have “high impact for participants” with “least loss of productive time out of the workplace”.
The Emerging Leaders program was a pilot program tested internally at GOTAFE in 2021 before launching contextualised programs externally in 2022.
Following the successful first year of the program, GOTAFE is now open to expressions of interest from businesses looking to grow leaders in their own organisations, to participate in this non-accredited training program.
“It’s been a great success; we have repeat enrolment commitments from our client organisations,” Ms Symes said.
Businesses of any size which are interested can contact Ms Symes at ksymes@gotafe.vic.edu.au
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