TAFE NSW – New England Institute, Australian Business Limited and Moxon’s Bakery have developed a partnership to ensure that small, local bakeries have skilled staff.
Roger Bourke of Moxon’s Bakery makes his premises available for New England Institute to provide on-the-job training for the region.
The local training partnership between TAFE NSW – New England Institute, Australian Business Limited’s Apprenticeships Centre (ABLAC) and Moxon’s Bakery is a case of winners all round.
As a wholesale bakery, Moxon’s has a range of specialised equipment that complements the New England Institute’s facilities.
Mr Bourke has had the experience of apprentices having to go off-site to the TAFE NSW campus for training, and other small retail bakeries found their apprentices weren’t getting the broad experience they needed to be able to work in a range of jobs across the industry.
In response, Mr Bourke, Ellen Scanlon of New England Institute and Peter Rickard of ABLAC cooked up a plan so that New England Institute trains bakery apprentices from across the region at Moxon’s and TAFE NSW.
Moxon’s supplies the premises, equipment and some ingredients. New England Institute supplies the teacher – Matt McAlister – plus the students, as well as other ingredients.
‘Ellen and I came up with the idea and we tracked down Matt McAlister from Brumby’s Bakery in Armidale who is now the teacher,’ Mr Bourke said.
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‘The arrangement is going really well, it’s great for the participants and it’s really great for us. We find it great because we have a fair sized wholesale bakery.
‘We had apprentices who’d go to TAFE NSW for three or four days a month, taking staff away from the business. Now our employees get assessed on the job, they’re only away for one day a month; it’s been great.’
The Certificate III in Food Processing (Retail Baking – Bread) and Retail Baking (Combined) are partly delivered at the bakery.
To date, 21 apprentices have participated in the program. They attend TAFE NSW one day a month alternating between Tamworth and Armidale campuses. Every second month they spend some time training onsite at Moxon’s Bakery.
‘We have people coming from Coonabarabran and from all over the place,’ Mr Bourke said. ‘They do theory and practical work at the campus one day a month, otherwise they’re here.’
Apprentices are assessed in their workplaces, at whatever time of the day or night suits, which has benefits for employers such as Moxon’s because of the reduced time away from the workplace. It benefits students in that they have less time travelling to and from class.
Ellen Scanlon, New England Institute Business Consultant, said another benefit was that ‘with the TAFE NSW assessor out on the road, employers and apprentices feel like they can talk and resolve issues’.
As well as theory and practical training, apprentices and employers join together in the New England Institute bakery focus group, where industry experts and suppliers can discuss the course and industry expectations. The 11 workshops conducted throughout the calendar year keep students interested, and the combination of on and off-the-job training and assessment means students can complete their formal training in two years rather than three, Ms Scanlon said.
