A new collaborative training course in emergency response management is now being offered at NSW Department of Primary Industries Murrumbidgee Rural Studies Centre (MRSC) at Yanco.
Since early 2012, MRSC has been collaborating with Riverina Institute of TAFE and the Australian College of Community Safety in South Australia to form a network for the delivery of a wide range of public safety leadership and emergency management qualifications.
MRSC Manager of Continuing Education, John Collins, said the training package was a direct response to the need for better management of disasters.
“Questions about the effectiveness of responses to a recent series of major disasters including the fires in Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia, floods in Brisbane, Northern NSW, metropolitan areas and more recently the Riverina have led to Royal Commissions or other committees of enquiry,” he said.
Mr Collins said the training would be of interest to government agencies and private corporations seeking better training for fire, rescue, SES, and handling dangerous goods, to ensure their people were well prepared for emergencies with plans, equipment and systems in place.
“It is often difficult to find trainers with sufficient experience and with required training qualifications, to teach others,” he said.
“Each member of the network has well developed staffing, resources and systems in place to cover various parts of the qualifications spectrum, but none has sufficient capacity to cover all.
“By agreeing to cooperate, the three Registered Training Organisations can offer a comprehensive range of qualifications and customers will no longer have to hunt around the Australian training scene to piece together solutions to their training requirements.
“As a member of the network, Yanco will be able to provide a ‘one stop shop’ offering a wide range of qualifications within the Public Safety Training Package.”
Mr Collins said online training was also being developed to complement existing training practices.
“In recent weeks, the consortium has responded to a request from a multinational mining corporation to train its safety officers at a major site in a range of qualifications and it is confidently expected that more requests of a similar nature will be received,” he said.
For more information on the course contact 1800 628 422