Manny's take on Resource Developer Erica Childs

Erica Childs

Erica started at CTS on a casual basis in September 2009 after completing her Certificate IV in Training and Assessment with us. At that point she was mainly involved in the creation of our RPL assessment tools.

In 2010 she worked as a Learning and Development Consultant and co-delivered the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment course. She was also our student liaison officer, did coaching, mentoring and assessing and continued with the creation of resource development tools and manuals.

THEN, she decided she would prefer to work from home so she could spend more time with her young family and is now working solely on resource development for us.

Erica tells me that some of her best moments at work have been:

" -  working with fantastic students who all had amazing skills to offer - many wonderful topics and discussion through students training delivery sessions (many big laughs as well)

  - involvement with coaching and mentoring of students to the end of their qualification - very fulfilling to finally present them with their certificate! (ie to tell them it was all over!!!)

  - working with students who had 'given up' and working intensively with them to help complete their qualification

  - seeing students have a 'light bulb' or an 'ah-ha' moment, when they suddenly grasped an idea or concept - it was like they were moving to a new level

  - as for resource development - its a bit like putting together a jigsaw puzzle!! You have to take it apart before you can put it back together! Love the detail!!"

Before coming to us here at CTS Erica was an investigator with the Commonwealth Government, a travel consultant and an HR Officer with BHP.

Her qualifications include the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment, Diploma in Frontline Management, Bachelor of Economics (Political Science Major) and a Graduate Certificate in Management. She also has a Certificate II in Sport and Recreation, Coaching Principles 1 and is an AUSTSWIM Teacher of Water Swimming Safety. As you can see she is a life long learner and we certainly can't wait to see what she tackles next!!

When Erica is not busy developing resources for us or burying her head in a text book, she enjoys travel and spending time with her young family whilst she tries to keep up with their ever increasingly busy social, music, dance and sports schedules. You can also find her paddling in a Dragon Boat and swimming at the Bunbury AUSSI Swimming Club. Her aim is to participate in the Busselton Jetty Swim in 2013 and I will certainly be there to cheer her on!

CTS - where your training matters

Manny visits Kalgoorlie-Boulder, WA

Earlier this week I took a trip to Kalgoorlie-Boulder to check out the town and scope out some training opportunities for me and the rest of the CTS team. What a fabulous town!!! No wonder our students who come from there rave about the place.

The Superpit is enormous but I was only allowed a brief look at the gaping hole as one of the KCGM workers came up to tell us all to leave the lookout as there was a code yellow which meant there was lightening in the area and as we were on the highest point, things could have got tricky. And, as you know, being slightly rotund, I was a sitting duck for more than one strike. The township of Boulder was extensively damaged by the earthquake in 2010, especially the Boulder Town Hall, with so many of the buildings covered in scaffolding - a few working safely at heights tickets needed there! - it looks like it will be a while before the main street looks really good again. The Superpit Shop had some fantastic products for sale and a tricky mathematical problem for us to solve about how much the gold bar was worth at the daily gold price per ounce - it was a good thing there was a large calculator handy!

I also checked out two lunch places, a Hannan's Street tour and the WA Museum Head Frame and kept a look out for companies that may require our services.

Kalgoorie-Boulder is a large thriving city with plenty of training opportunities available so expect to see us in the area before too long. I've put a few of the happy snaps of my trip up for you to check out.

CTS - where your training matters

Boulder Town Hall

View of main street from Head Frame

Coffee Club Kalgoorlie

Head Frame at the WA Museum Kalgoorlie

Super Pit

Quality Auditing Skill Set training commences 12 March 2012

Our popular Quality Auditing Skill Set is confirmed for Monday 12th March 2012. The course has 3 days of training with some assessments to be completed out of class. After attending the course and completing the assessments you will gain competence in 4 of the 8 units within the Diploma of Quality Auditing.

If you have completed the Diploma of OHS or other relevant Diploma level qualifications, you may be able to credit transfer the remaining 4 units and gain your Diploma of Quality Auditing. Any remaining units you need to complete can be undertaken on a flexible basis.

Orlando Fazzolari is the trainer for this course and he brings a wealth of auditing knowledge to the classroom. With our small class sizes you can be sure that Orlando will devote plenty of one-on-one time to help you gain this Skill Set.

Places are limited so if you would like to join the class in March, please call us on 9791 6611 or email us on training@ctsconsult.com.au . Additional information about the units and the qualification can be seen on our website.

CTS - where your training matters

Manny's take on Learning and Development Consultant Sheryl Clarke

Sheryl Clarke

Sheryl started with CTS in September 2011 and it just seems like we have never been without her! She was quick to become one of the team and her "way out there" sense of humour ensures she keeps everyone well and truly on their toes. Sheryl is our main Resource Processing trainer and also facilitates our Safety Representative Course and helps our lead OHS trainer, Orlando Fazzolari, on some occasions.

The majority of her time is spent off-site seeing students and clients in the Greenbushes, Bunbury and Leinster areas. Rumour has it that she will soon shake the gold dust from her feet and head to iron ore country to train a whole new group of people, This could be a great opportunity for me to tag along, so, pick me, pick me, my mate Sheryl!

Sheryl also flies to Port Hedland and Newman to facilitate the SafeStart component of the BHP Blue Leadership Progam and is trying to emulate John Brom and earn enough Frequent Flyer points to get somewhere for free but it looks like it will take quite some while to amass that many points. Hard luck Sheryl!

Sheryl is also a great help to John Williams, John Bromham and Orlando Fazzolari when she assists them with their ThinkSafe Audits. And did I say she also does the Safety Representative course training? She is hoping that there will be more site-specific training in this area so she can travel to even more camps than she has already! So, if you are a site that requires a number of Safety Reps to be trained all at once you will probably find it cheaper to have us send Sheryl to your site to do the training there rather than pay all the associated costs to have your employees trained off-site. Interested? Call us on 9791 6611 and see how we can help.

In the couple of months Sheryl was with us last year, one student completed his Certificate IV in Metalliferous Mining Operations (Processing) under her guidance. Quite a few more are nearing the end of their traineeship so it looks like 2012 will be a good year for completions for Sheryl - check back this time next year for an update and see how she has done if you have not become a follower of the blog.

Sheryl's qualifications include the Certificate IV in Process Plant Technology and the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment and if we ever need her to drive a forklift, she can!!!

When not busy on CTS's behalf, Sheryl is a recreational cyclist and can be see both here and overseas pumping the pedals. Her most amazing talent is that she can mirror write with both hands and sometimes when she leaves us messages we wonder if she would not be better off joining forces with Johnny English and becoming another 007!

CTS - where your training matters

Classroom training in Certificate IV in Training and Assessment - still a few places available

Jeanette Denham

Jeanette Denham is back from Parental Leave!!!!

Next week Cluster 1 of our popular Certificate IV in Training and Assessment classroom-based course will be running and she will be the facilitator. This Cluster covers 6 of the 10 units needed to complete the course and Cluster 2 will run in March.

Prior to taking a family break, Jeanette was our Operations and Training Manager so many of you reading this blog should know all about her! We are glad to have her back on deck as she is a fantastic trainer - see our testimonial page and check out what her students have said about her!

We like small class sizes as it gives our students more one-on-one time with their trainer so although we are happy with the number enrolled so far, we could fit one or two more in!

So, call us on 9791 6611, take this important first step towards a more rewarding career and sign up for the class!

CTS - where your training matters

Manny's take on Director Karen Williams

Karen Williams

Director Karen Williams runs the financial and RTO side of the business and has been doing so since she and John started up in Augusta in 1998.

Prior to opening CTS Karen managed two regional Telecentres in the South West for approximately five years and was an Internet and Computer Studies lecturer for TAFE. She spent time working and travelling around Australia during the 1980's and 6 years in Papua New Guinea. Whilst in PNG she taught music, played keyboards in a band and played the piano for international and local school choirs in Tabubil.

An advocate for not-for-profit organisations, she has delivered their programs and helped with fundraising. She is an active board member of Pathways and the current Vice President for the Bunbury chapter of the BNI. Prior to that she held the position of BNI Education Officer. AND she also manages to fit in being a member of the Network South West Business Club - she arrives late to work every second Friday as they all have breakfast together at the Lord Forrest Hotel!

Both Karen and John are passionate about their business and I have watched them grow from strength to strength. They and CTS are well known and respected through-out the training community and they continue to attract training and coaching contracts with many local and national companies.

When not working Karen enjoys dreaming up all sorts of fun team activities for staff get togethers, spending time with her family, kayaking, playing the banjo, piano and any other musical instrument she can get her hands on, bike riding, walking and cheering on the West Coast Eagles. Go Nic Natanui!!!!

CTS - where your training matters

Mayhem at the Office!

We have had a really "trying" week at the office, just let me tell you about it!!

At about 1.30pm on Thursday 2nd February 2012 our phone lines and internet access just ceased to exist! A contractor in the Bunbury area damaged two Telstra cables which severed landlines in east and central Bunbury. Reports tell us that between 500 and 1500 customers were affected.

Eventually Telstra were able to divert one of our phone lines to a company mobile so we have had one line in to the business. If you have been trying to contact us but just haven't been able to, we apologise. For those of you who managed to make it through, well done!!! However, our internet came back up on Saturday night so you can reach us at any time on training@ctsconsult.com.au .

Although still not operating at our usual level we are finding innovative ways to continue to work as productively as possible and we are hoping that all our services will be restored by Friday this week. But last Thursday and Friday Karen and Sally just lost the plot - hopefully those of you they talked to managed to make some sense of what they had to say!

With no students around this week - the SHREP ones were here last week - Manny spent time trying to decide which course he should enrol in next. With safety being his passion, I am assuming something in the Occupational Health and Safety area but we'll just have to wait and see.

Don't forget, call us for all your OHS, Business, HR, Management and Resource Processing training needs.

CTS - where your training matters