Winner – Lance Bernard Memorial Award

Well deserved winner of the Lance Barnard Memorial Award for her focus on a life in business and volunteering is also on GTA’s Today’s Skills, Tomorrow’s Leaders program.

It’s often hard for a young person to decide on their career while they are still at school. Not so for Toni-Lee Hills who was always determined to work in a business environment.

Her determination has been recognised – as the winner for the Lance Barnard Memorial Award in the 2011 Tasmanian State Training Awards and being accepted into the Today’s Skills, Tomorrow’s Leaders program for Group Training Australia.

Toni-Lee has received recognition in the past as well: receiving the Glenorchy Young Citizen Award in 2010 for her work as a volunteer through Glenorchy City Council and a Certificate of Excellence in VET Business and Business Studies while at Claremont College and Rotary Youth Leadership Awards.

One of the key stages in her pathway to a career came when she stepped away from the pressure of going straight from college to university in order to do a Business Degree and instead gained employment through MEGT Group Training as a Business Trainee.

Toni-Lee was placed with the Royal Automobile Club of Tasmania, where she gained her workplace experience and on-the-job training at the same time she was paid for her work. Toni-Lee successfully achieved Certificate III in Business with MEGT Institute in February 2011 and was offered ongoing employment with RACT Insurance.

Sarah Burnett, one of MEGT Institute’s trainers and assessors comments that throughout the training,  “I often received feedback from RACT on how Toni-Lee was progressing in developing professional communication skills and developing effective relationships with the broader RACT network and clients.”

Scott McGrath, Senior Industry Employment Consultant with MEGT Group Training was so impressed by Toni-Lee, he nominated her for the prestigious Today’s Skills, Tomorrow’s Leaders program and Toni-Lee will head off in August to Canberra for a series of seminars. “At MEGT we are extremely proud to be able to work alongside Toni-Lee – organising her traineeship through our Australian Apprenticeships Centre, organising her work placement through our Group Training Organisation and her business studies through MEGT Institute. We feel as though we have walked beside her for this very important part of her journey and look forward to seeing just how far she will go in life.”