Nagambie, well known as the home of Melbourne Cup winning racehorse Black Caviar was the venue for the North East (NE) Region Community Safety Conference on 23 and 24 May 2015.
Story by Rod Stebbing
Alex Caughey, NE Region Community Education and Media Coordinator, and Robert Brown, NE Region Community Education Coordinator, hosted participants from the five combined districts forming the new NE Region for a two-day workshop showcasing the good work done in community engagement and community education. Everyone in attendance was an experienced community safety facilitator.
Volunteer and staff presenters worked together through a detailed agenda including a unique ‘futures-and-where-to’ discussion at the end of the first day.
On day one, participants were given the chance to undertake the new CFA Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) process for the national unit of competency PUAFIR208B ‘Participate in community safety activities’.
Facilitated by district-endorsed volunteer RPL assessors and assisted by the RPL project officer from HQ, the result was a 100 per cent uptake of the opportunity with 12 candidates successfully assessed on the Sunday.
Conference sponsor Robyn Hobbs, NE Region Team Leader – Risk and Service Delivery said, “The RPL process was well received by the participants. They felt the reflection process and one-on-one time was an affirmation of their skills and knowledge.
“All participants went away with a heightened level of enthusiasm.”
Conference host and local community safety champion Alex Caughey had the final word.
“It was good to finally put the RPL process to the test. It worked well with lots of positive feedback from participants. I had my doubts about the time requirement but was pleasantly surprised at how quickly we were able to work our way through each participant’s evidence.”
For more information on RPL go to Brigades online > Training > Resources > Recognition of Prior Learning, or speak to your District Training Team.
Read more about RPL.
Author: Leith Hillard