November 2011
Fulham is Victoria’s leading employer
The Fulham Correctional Centre has been selected as Victoria’s most outstanding employer.
It received the extremely prestigious Victorian Employer of the Year award for the world-class courses and correctional practice training it develops and delivers to employees.
The specific training and support courses were designed by Fulham staff and approved by the Victorian Registration and Qualification Authority and the National Correctional Services Industry Advisory Committee.
The announcement by Skills Victoria was made at the 2011 Victorian Training Awards dinner at Crown Palladium, where Fulham general manager Troy Ittensohn accepted the trophy on behalf of the correctional centre and The GEO Group Australia.
Troy said that delivering in-house training in a correctional environment is always difficult but Fulham achieved remarkable results using a wide range of delivery methods and environments.
“We linked traditional classroom and on the job training with mentoring and shadowing as well as on-site practical training,” he said.
“Staff attended Corrections Victoria training off-site as well as TAFE and other personal development courses. There were also simulated emergency exercises involving police, ambulance and the Country Fire Authority.”
As Fulham operates 24 hours a day every day, achieving a 98 per cent participation rate in the courses was a remarkable achievement. In fact, each session had to be delivered twice during the year-long training because of clashing rosters. A feature of the training was that it was also accessible to Fulham’s 60 casual and 90 professional staff.
Troy said that correctional officers are recruited from a variety of backgrounds and rarely have any custodial experience.
“The training designed at Fulham has proved extremely successful in developing the behaviours and attitudes required in working with offenders,” he said.
The managing director of The GEO Group Australia, Pieter Bezuidenhout said the award was recognition of the dedication of the Fulham training staff.
“To develop high quality, innovative training courses and then deliver them with such outstanding success is a wonderful achievement and a benchmark for GEO Australia,” he said.
Skills Victoria is funded by the Victorian Government to support and facilitate access to training and tertiary education opportunities so that Victorians can acquire higher skills and contribute to the success of Victorian businesses.
For a town where the summer temperature can sit above 40 degrees centigrade for days, if not weeks, Junee really feels the cold! This charming regional town endures some bitterly cold winter mornings when the temperature struggles to get above freezing.
For teenagers heading to school a hearty breakfast is often ignored in favour of an extra 30 minutes under the blankets. As a result the local Junee High School offers a free breakfast program two mornings a week.
The cooking and clean-up is normally a task for teachers and staff but the team from Junee Correctional Centre recently donned their aprons, armed themselves with eggs, bacon, sausages and oranges and grabbed juice extractors and frying pans to once again help with the breakfast.
The result was a ‘much as you can eat’ meal for students, as well as teachers and staff who enjoyed a morning off duty to mingle informally with the youngsters.
The correctional centre enjoys a very close relationship with the school and recently donated $3000 to ensure that all students were dressed warmly for winter and to also subsidise school excursions.
For general manager Andy Walker the support of the school is an ongoing commitment.
“This is not a one-off donation and we are discussing other opportunities to assist the school,” he said.
“Thirty per cent of our staff are locals and many of them attended the school or have children studying there. It is a vital part of the fabric of our community.”
Four correctional centre employees are also involved in the school’s Mentors 4 Youth program that provides career planning assistance to students.
The mentors meet with students for one hour a week during a 10-week program under the supervision of Mentors 4 Youth project officer Laurinda Motion and the school’s careers advisor Elaine Bunyan.
Each session is dedicated to helping the students to identify their strengths, interests and skill sets and to exploring career options.
Acting Junee High School principal Matthew Brown said he was overwhelmed by the generosity of GEO.
“I have been working in education for 30 years and have not seen a business as supportive of a school as GEO,” he said.
Environmental success continues
The efforts of the Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre and its staff on environmental issues has again been recognised with the centre winning its second consecutive Minister’s Awards for Excellence in Community Safety in the ‘green’ category.
The centre’s 2011 submission, titled ‘Building a Better Planet’, focused on its ongoing commitment to environmental and conservation strategies that protect Australia’s wildlife. Carbon neutral developments within the centre were also highlighted in the submission.
Queensland’s Minister for Police, Corrective Services and Emergency Services, Neil Roberts, presented the award at Parliament House and praised the Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre and staff for their dedication.
Most recently the centre has been breeding Australian ‘bush tucker’ including jumping crickets, bush roaches, meal worms and red claw crayfish to feed injured native animals.
The centre has also developed a close relationship with the renowned Australia Zoo, established by legendary ‘Crocodile Hunter’ Steve Irwin and wife Terry, and are working together on a number of initiatives.
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