Older employees proven
for the long road

Staff of Brisbane-based Simon National Carriers join for the long haul – in years of service as well as road kilometres.

The company’s age-friendly strategies exemplify what the State Government seeks to achieve with its Experience Pays awareness campaign, part of the Queensland Skills Plan.

Nearly four out of five of Simon’s drivers are mature-age and many are long-term employees. The company values older workers, encourages older workers to remain in their jobs, recruits in this bracket and includes them in its training programs.

Compliance and safety officer Merry Manton says employees grow up with the firm and are “very much part of the family”. Simon’s employs 325 people nation-wide and has Queensland offices at Brisbane, Toowoomba and Townsville.

Older employees are particularly valued but all staff can take up flexible work options and training opportunities, regardless of age.

“We set out to be flexible by enabling staff to have varied roles and rosters tailored to fit in with family commitments,” Ms Manton said.

“We allow drivers flexibility in their roster so they can be home when they need to be. And if a driver needs to come off long distance work, for family reasons perhaps, we bring them in locally.”

Long-term employees are celebrated by the company which recognises the combined years of staff knowledge adds value to the business, says Ms Manton.

Simon’s training-for-all policy was adopted in the belief “no-one is too old to learn”. Traineeships are offered in frontline management, warehousing and road transport, and apprenticeships in mechanics.

Older workers represent the fastest growing segment of Australia’s workforce. Federal research indicates that by 2012, 85 per cent of labour market growth will come from people aged 45 years and over while the growth of new entrants into the workforce will decrease.

For older workers, a free government publication was produced this year, What are your options as an older worker? For employers there is free advice in The Employer Guide to Recruiting, Retraining and Retaining Mature-Age Employees. Call 1800 630 647 or go online.

                                                        Helping to engineer a
career revival

Formal credit for 'big
sky learning' 

For 25 years Stephen Skewes acquired farm management and business expertise in an open air classroom – rural properties on Queensland’s Western Downs and across to New South Wales.

It was only when he considered a career change from traditional rural property management that Mr Skewes (pictured) realised he might benefit from having formal qualifications.
 
In August this year, he was able to gain not one but two diploma qualifications – achieved without leaving the land. It followed an approach to the Roma TAFE campus where he heard about ‘recognition of prior learning’ (RPL).
 
“I found out from talking to the TAFE about how they could recognise prior learning in the wider environment,” he said in September, shortly before taking up a new position with a Queensland Government research project.

“I applied for assessment for two diplomas – the Diploma of Agriculture and Diploma of Rural Business Management.

“With guidance from a TAFE specialist I prepared a résumé of my experience in managing grazing and farming enterprises across south-western Queensland and New South Wales.”

The property manager’s formal assessment application comprised not only his résumé but a number of client references. Just 14 days later Mr Skewes learned he had been awarded both diplomas in recognition of his high achievement in rural and financial management.

Today Mr Skewes is employed by the Queensland Government, managing two breeding properties at Dalby for the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries' Tick Fever Research Centre.

The number of people successfully seeking qualifications through the RPL process at the Southern Queensland Institute of TAFE (SQIT) has more than doubled since 2005. Last year 1128 individuals received qualifications, compared with 531 in 2005.

Mr Skewes said he was “amazed the process did not involve sitting any exams or having to attend any courses”. “My self-confidence has been lifted by these formal awards,” he said. “These qualifications are widely recognised both on and off the land.”

Although born in Tamworth in New South Wales, Mr Skewes considers himself a Queenslander after spending most of his working life managing a property in the Hannaford district. This was followed by a position managing mixed farming operations on the Western Downs and just over the New South Wales border.

He encourages other property managers to check with their local SQIT campuses to see if their years of practical learning experience can earn them formal qualifications.