Boning up on their skills

Kristina St Vincent – HR Manager, BE Campbell, Martin Ratcliff – Area Manager, MEGT Australian Apprenticeships Centre, Merci Lotho – Principle and Training Manager of Wetherill Park Training.

BE Campbell is primarily a pork processor and has recently extended their business to include lamb processing and value-added meals products for stir frys, kebabs, meat balls and special gourmet cuts including beef and chicken. These innovations are important to assure continued success for their business. But they have also value-added skills for their staff.

The establishment of their own Registered Training Organisation, delivering accredited training to their staff was essential because the TAFEs have only been able to provide butchery training and BE Campbell needed qualifications for their boning room. The Wetherill Park Training Company is coming up to its 10th anniversary this year and now delivers Certificate II Meat Processing – Abattoir and Certificate III Meat Processing Boning, Certificate III Meat Processing General and Certificate IV Meat Processing Leadership for their Sydney staff and are also investigating introducing Certificate III Slaughtering for their Abattoir in Young, NSW.

The results of inhouse training are being seen in an increase in the retention rate for trainees. This is very good news for job seekers in the region and in this industry.

Kristina St Vincent the HR Manager believes bringing unskilled young people into their business, investing in them and career streaming them, contributes strongly to the wellbeing of the whole community.

‘We have workers here who joined the business at 16 with no skills,’ explains Ms St Vincent. ‘They have gone through our traineeships program and are now running an area as a supervisor. They are our greatest success story.’

Martin Ratcliff, Area Manager for their local MEGT Australian Apprenticeships Centre has worked alongside BE Campbell’s training company for the whole 10 year journey, administering their government requirements and watching how the quality of their specialised training affects the teamwork and morale of the business. He says that their nominations for state and regional Minister’s Awards for Excellence fills him with as much pride as the trainees themselves.

Merci Lotho, Principle and Training Manager of Wetherill Park Training, BE Campbell’s training company, explains that to provide a good quality service to their organisation they need strong support networks and that is why their relationship works so well with MEGT. ‘No matter what challenges we face, MEGT is there for us.’

Australian Apprenticeships are an Australian government initiative.

MEGT (Australia) | Australian Apprenticeships