SOUTH AUSTRALIAN TRAINING AWARDS

Ms THOMPSON (Reynell) (16:57): This afternoon I would like to congratulate all the recent winners of the South Australian Training Awards and, particularly, I would like to make some comments about the Murray Bridge Veterinary Clinic, which won the Small Employer Trainer of the Year Award.

I found myself on the panel for both the Employer of the Year and the Small Employer of the Year, and was very impressed by the work of this small, regional business that was exemplifying many of the characteristics that I had only previously encountered in St Mary's Girls' College in Derry, Ireland. St Mary's won the European Quality Organisation of the Year quite some years ago. They are regarded throughout Europe as a lighthouse organisation for the way that they have managed to bring business practices into a school in a very disadvantaged area.

Derry is by some known as Londonderry, and St Mary's is in Bogside. Its student population consists largely of girls whose parents have not worked, whose grandparents have not worked and, often, many generations know of no-one in the family who has worked.

It was interesting to me that St Mary's in Northern Ireland and the Murray Bridge Veterinary Clinic were using the same approach to success in their organisation, to making it an organisation where the corporate goals and personal goals came together to fulfil their business purposes. For the Murray Bridge Veterinary Clinic, that is providing care to animals. For St Mary's girls' school that is providing excellent education to girls who have had little experience of success in life or success in education.

The methods that both organisations used were really interesting. I cannot, of course, disclose anything about the details of the application from the Murray Bridge Veterinary Clinic so I do need to talk in fairly abstract terms, but in both organisations there was a clear purpose for the organisation.

There was a clear purpose for the skills that were required to make the best of the organisation and an involvement of each individual in how they were going to contribute to those goals, what skills and training they needed to contribute and, importantly, that training was never done in isolation.

In both organisations when somebody participates in a training program they come back and report to their colleagues about what they have learnt from that training program and how the services in the organisation can be improved as a result of the learning and training that has been undertaken.

There are clear reviews on an annual basis of the individual training plan and progress against it. These reviews are both formal and informal. There is a clear recognition of people's achievements and contribution to their organisation.

There is also recognition that people learn and communicate in different ways, so each member of the organisation is invited to participate in some simple tests to identify their own preferred learning and communication style and to understand the learning and communication styles of others and to understand that just because they do not seem to be getting a point across to another person it is not necessarily because that other person cannot understand, it is because the communication styles are different and different strategies and techniques may be used. So, each person learns how to communicate in different ways, so that the organisation and the individuals benefit from clear communication and a clear common purpose within the organisation.

I am very pleased that Dr Fiona Warton and Ms Jacqui Kempe of the Murray Bridge Veterinary Clinic are going to address the education forum that I am holding in November for parent leaders of the public schools in my electorate.