Mawsons, 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,” Mrs Moon said.
“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 12 managers at different sites, who were good operators and keen to build their leadership skills, were identified to participate in the program.
“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,” she said.
The Emerging Leaders participants travelled up to three-and-a-half hours 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.
GOTAFE professional and creative services acting co-ordinator 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”.
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 the 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 that are interested in the program can email Ms Symes at ksymes@gotafe.vic.edu.au