WE ONLY KNOW WHAT WE KNOW…
By Sam Hendry, College Manager
A wise person once said “We only know what we know, and we don’t know what we don’t know…”
When it comes to training, never a truer word has been spoken.
As many of you reading this will know, the ACA NSW has partnered with Kool Kids Training College (RTO 40636) to offer members centre based training in the CHC30113 Certificate III in Early Childhood Education and Care and CHC50113 Diploma of Early Childhood Education and Care qualifications.
And we have been busy marketing this centre-based training to members all over NSW.
It has been an interesting exercise in understanding more about what centre managers and owners know about the important role training has in their service delivery.
On presenting what we believe to be the BEST training in the market we sometimes get the reply “Oh, thank you but we are happy with our training provider.”
It is an interesting statement – being ‘happy’ in our world of training doesn’t translate to quality.
It can be code for ‘staying with what we know.’
And in some cases, there is real reason for this as many centres are fatigued by the training landscape. There have been RTO’s that have come and gone and have let many educators down.
As a result, centre owners and managers can be a little shy of making a change – it can be a bridge too far to again make a change – so the safe position is to ‘stay with what we know.’
This point is not lost on College Manager, Sam Hendry, who said this week, “In the list of the top ten things Centre Managers will address tomorrow, for the greater majority the topic of training is number 11 in order of priority…”
“We understand that as we operate centres also (noting Kool Kids Training College origins are as a service provider in SE QLD and Nth NSW), and the increasing demands on Centre Managers means that if it ‘ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ and stay with what you know.”
“The irony is that when we unpack that position often centre managers are frustrated with their training provider”, Sam said.
“It takes some questioning, but I did ask recently after a centre manager advised they were ‘happy’ with their training provider to rate the provider on a scale of 1 to 10. The answer I got was 7 out of 10 and I immediately responded ‘why not demand excellence, why not demand 10 out of 10!”
It is of course critically important for centre owners and centre managers to re-prioritise training so that it makes their top ten priority list and it is equally important to demand that the training is ‘10 out of 10’ in terms of quality.
The 5 most common shortcomings for training providers include:
- Quality of learning resources
- Lacking in practical skills mentoring and development
- Trainer not attending the centre regularly enough
- RTO not providing enough feedback on progress of student to centre managers/owners
- Delivery method not delivering a ‘user friendly’ experience
If any of these 5 shortcomings are evident in your centre’s training, then demand ’10 out of 10’ training and call us today on 1300 048 133.
(HOLD THE PRESS - Check out www.eecc.com.au for details on the ACA NSW Excellence in Early Childhood Education Awards 2019 - Saturday, 26 October at Sydney's Shangri-La Hotel).
Application being accepted on the website now – submit by 30/9/19.
