ART SECURITY CASE STUDIES
Skills programs build better businesses
Skills training benefits your business, your staff and your industry as a whole, says company director, Louise Christie.
The Director of ART Security, Louise Christie, says the Victorian Skills Pledge is like the heart-tick for her industry. “I’d love to see the Victorian Skills Pledge as something a client would recognise as the mark of difference for a company with skilled professionals dedicated to a high level of training,” Louise says.
Part of the Victorian Government’s major package of reforms to the Victorian training system, the Victorian Skills Pledge is a public declaration by businesses of their commitment to skills development. Taking the Victorian Skills Pledge gives businesses a range of marketing opportunities to show potential customers they are dedicated to up-skilling their staff to best-practice standards. It is open to businesses of all sizes in the private, public and community sectors.
Louise works tirelessly to raise professionalism in the security industry, particularly concentrating on the electronic security sector. She is a member of the Victorian Security Industry Council and the Victorian Working Group of the Australian Security Industry Association Limited. She also advises the Security Trainers Association and works with the Licensing Services Division of Victoria Police (LSD). Security services in Victoria are regulated by LSD. Competency-based training must be completed by staff to gain LSD licences and registration.
Louise believes increasing opportunities for training and better developed and publicised career pathways for the security industry will benefit not only her business but her industry as a whole - and thereby public safety.
“The electronics side of the security industry is developing so fast it’s breathtaking,” she says, citing major changes in security monitoring systems and platforms in particular. “There is a skills shortage in the whole industry, but especially in the electronics field. The opportunities are immense across a range of well-paid roles but the technicians are few and far between because the career pathways are not very evident. That’s something we’re working to change.”
Changes to the Victorian training system will make it easier for all businesses to improve the skills of their workforce – and, accordingly, the professionalism and reputation of their business. Small to medium sized businesses that sign up to the Victorian Skills Pledge are eligible for Skills for Growth: the Workforce Development Program. This program provides eligible businesses with independent specialists to work with them – free of charge – to identify their strategic business aims and objectives, assess staff skills, and place staff into accredited training.
Skills for Growth is open to Victorian-based small and medium sized businesses employing between 1 and 200 full-time equivalent staff, which have been in operation for at least 12 months and are financially viable.
The Victorian Training Guarantee entitles eligible students to government subsidised training through a TAFE institute, university TAFE Division, Adult Community Education organisation, or private Registered Training Organisation (RTO). If a business is looking to up-skill its employees through any of these approved providers a government subsidy will be available to help them meet the cost of their training.
The Victorian Training Guarantee provides an opportunity for businesses to share the cost of training with Government for training for the skills they need to raise productivity and innovation. It is also designed to boost the skills and capabilities of their workforce.
For Christie, being able to display their Victorian Skills Pledge certificate will indicate not only a company’s commitment to training, but also its quality as a service business and she hopes others in the industry will embrace it also. “There’s not a high degree of compliance in this industry, so when you do comply it’s good to be recognised for that,” she says. “We want the public to know who the credible people to go to are.”
For more information about changes to the TAFE and training system, including Skills for Growth, the Victorian Training Guarantee and the Victorian Skills Pledge, visit www.skills.vic.gov.auor contact Business Skills Victoria on (03) 9329 4777.