May 20, 2009
Four young people are carrying the flag for Tamworth Regional Council in this year’s state training awards.
They’re among the young achievers of 32 young entrant trainees/apprentices employed by TRC and represent local government work in auto mechanics, IT applications, planning, community services and event planning, corporate governance and sporting administration.
TRC says they are outstanding young employees striving to achieve better workplace skills and develop their career paths.
The four nominated for the July 10 regional awards night are Jess Giandomenico, Lauren Crowe, Jacinta Russell and Christie Bithrey.
The awards are organised by the Greater Northern Skills Development Group and are designed to encourage skills development and training across the north.
TRC has a total 64 trainees in its 600-people workforce. Half of those 64 are also undertaking traineeships or further studies related to the work they do with the council, and they’re aged anywhere from their late 20s to late 50s.
TRC general manager Glenn Inglis says the council has boosted its trainee numbers over the past couple of years, mainly to increase its skills base and productivity levels but also to help retain younger people locally with good career jobs. Mr Inglis says TRC is also determined to foster best practice in human resources areas and encourage employees to aim for higher levels of expertise.
Jess Giandomenico is the baby of the bunch at 17 and a business support trainee mainly involved in secretarial work, but with a fair slab of community based work that ranges from event planning to program initiatives dealing with domestic violence and crime committees. Jess has just finished her first year of a two-year traineeship and already is interested in events management as her career path.
Christie Bithrey is 21 and into her second year too of a traineeship in business administration. She likes the local government world so far and wants to eventually undertake a diploma as well.
Lauren Crowe is also 21 and a trainee admin officer who now knows lots of what is involved when it comes to things like codes of conduct, councilor provisions, records of disclosure, freedom of information, insurance provisions, corporate and community policies and organizing meetings and council sessions.
Jacinta Russell is 20 and a trainee in the TRC information technology team which basically develops and adapts software to better process and handle council business and finance applications. She also helps manage TRC websites and is part of the team driving the design of a brand new council website to be launched in a few months.