Welcome to Job Searching in the year of 2020! This year has certainly thrown us a few red herrings that no-one expected. The VET sector has always been, and will continue to be, one of the most exciting and rewarding sectors to work in as a trainer or assessor. Whether it is a private RTO, a local TAFE, or even in your workplace as a resident trainer, there are roles that you can find that are constantly expanding.
From roles such as training designer, to delivering training, being an assessor, academic manager, or RPL assessor or even just a workforce trainer in your field, the roles are certainly abundant. Regardless of the economic environment, training is a field that companies know that they need to focus on, and government will often support as well. Having said that, getting a job as a trainer is often NOT a walk in the park so to speak, and the economic shake up of COVID-19 has certainly made the typical job search even more competitive.
This blog article will aim to give you 6 key tips to help you not just start out on your job search for a role in the VET sector, but to land the job of your dreams. It will share with you tried and tested approaches that have stood the test of time, and are even more important during these ‘COVID times’.
So here goes:
1. Visualise your WHAT and WHY
So you want to make a career change into the VET sector? That’s great, but before you do anything, you need to ask yourself, WHAT exactly do I want to be doing and WHY is that important to me? By sitting down and actually visualizing yourself in your future role, you will get a very clear picture as to what it would look like for you.
Do you want to be a workplace trainer? Would you like to be a coach/mentor/ facilitator in your workplace? Do you want to assess new employees? Whatever it might be, you need to start out with a loosely defined image of where you want to get to.
The WHY is equally important, as it will motivate you to keep going as you progress on your job search journey. Many say that their ‘Why’ is something to the effect of “I want to get off the tools” or “I want to help the up and coming people in my industry”, or variations of those sentiments.
The desire to give back and make your industry better will always set yourself apart as someone who is looking to make a difference, so here is a big tip – have a clear vision in mind as to how YOU will help make your industry better.
2. Get Qualified
This may seem like a pretty obvious one, however in the VET sector, if you haven’t already realised, there are some minimum requirements in order to qualify to become AND maintain your status as a trainer and assessor. So what do you need? You need 3 key things:
- Your TAE40116 Certificate 4 in Training and Assessment
- Industry experience
- The qualification you are looking to teach.
The TAE40116 is the gateway qualification in order to understand the role, the functions, the terminology and fundamental skills that you will need in the VET sector. It will enlighten you to the basics of training and help you become a proficient assessor. Now depending on where you study your TAE, it may be a challenging journey, however, at Success Training Academy, we aim to make it as practical and straightforward as possible and as ‘relevant’ to the roles that you will go into. Make sure you ask lots of questions when you are enrolling with any provider. That’s definitely a topic for another blog article.
It goes without saying, you will definitely need industry experience as no one likes to be taught by someone that hasn’t walked their talk. Finally yes, you will need the qualification you are teaching, but don’t worry if you don’t have it, you can always find an RTO that will assist you with gaining recognised prior learning (RPL) for any of the qualifications that you may need. RPL is always an option if you haven’t done formal studies in the past.
3. Get to know the landscape of training in your area
The next step that I insist people do, is find out what training companies are out there that are teaching in your field.
This can be done by searching for RTO’s on the national training register website of http://www.training.gov.au, or Google RTO’s in your area that may offer courses that relate, simply typing in ‘Child care training Gold Coast’, ‘Child care training inner Sydney’ (or whatever your local area might be), is going to be a great starting point. You want to start to get proactive, and list all of the local places in your area that deliver training in your field of expertise.
Keep adding to this list and get to know the landscape. Don’t forget to include non-training companies that may also be looking for trainers in the field as well. A local building company may be looking for your skills as a carpentry trainer or cabinet maker trainer. You just never know.
Start creating this list early as it will certainly inspire you to move forward.
4. Proactively MENTOR in your workplace
Let’s face it, one of the hardest things you will come across in any job search, is going for roles when you don’t yet have any experience. So how do you get experience in training without yet being qualified? Simple, proactively give back to people in your industry.
This could be done through offering to help new employees, mentoring new up and coming stars in your industry, jumping in and offering to run a session or two on someone’s behalf if they are ever sick or just need a hand, and even go as far as telling your HR department that you are hungry to help, asking them to let you know of any ways that you can get involved in training in an informal capacity.
5. Build relationships – take a mentor out for coffee
Ok this is where I need to confess. I played this card in my own job search and it was the one thing out of everything that made the difference.
I have been a trainer in the VET sector for approximately a decade now, and if I trace it all the way back, it started with one coffee conversation in 2009. I was driving in my car one day and I heard an ad on the radio for an RTO teaching the Diploma of Leadership and Management in my local area. This was a huge area of interest for me at the time. So, I got up the courage and I called that RTO and I simply said the following to the CEO/HR manager at the time:
“Hi, my name is Marc, and I know it would be a big ask, but I would love to take you out for coffee and pick your brain about the training industry in Australia, and how I could one day become a trainer?” or words to that affect.
Now in my case I did end up having that coffee and building a strong relationship with that gentleman, and one day just when they needed a trainer, they thought of me and I got the magic phone call of “Could you come in, we need someone quick.”
Now it won’t always go as smoothly as that, however as soon as you can, look to engage a mentor in your field that will give you advice along the way, and be willing to be taken out for a coffee, and a chat about their journey. You just never know where it may lead.
6. Give back via VALUEABLE content and ideas
So you have visualised the role you want, you have got qualified, you have discovered what the training landscape looks like, you have been mentoring others, you have sought out a mentor for yourself – now what?
Throughout the job search journey you are selling YOU, creating value for the commodity of YOU, and you need to be showcasing YOU and letting the world get a taste of who you are. So best way to do this?
Give valuable insights and advice to people in your industry. The best place to do this that we have found is on LinkedIn especially. It is the most professional social media, and a platform that is always looking for more people to provide great ideas and share insights that people can learn from.
So get your profile sorted, provide content and make sure that you comment and support other key leaders in your industry. Do whatever you can to ‘get noticed’. You never know the connections that you make that will land you your next role.
We wish you all the best of luck on your job search as a trainer or assessor in the VET sector! The perfect role for you is out there.
If you have any questions about the gateway course to the VET sector, the TAE40116 and how you can complete it with us, please give us a call on 1300 605 999.
Marc Miles
Trainer & Assessor | Consultant