I spoke with Alan today regarding literacy and numeracy learning material to be developed as an online resource  for the new trade school. He advised that they would be meeting with Rod on Wednesday to see what we have been doing with Construction skills and then decide on a format for the literacy and numeracy material.

I spoke with Kin Foss from the Skills Institute Tasmania regarding the following topics

UEE package development and moderation

online project plastering package

Kim has recently employed a coordinator for resource and assessment for the state and they are also going to be the coordinator for the Theis test case for online learning using our package.

we agreed that it would beneficial to both parties to have consistency in assessment and learning material.

The first step is for Patrick to put together a plan of action and then Kim Patrick and I will discuss commonalities.

He will also identify the competencies that the Theis apprentices are going to do so that we verify consistent assessment and learning.

The next stage will to begin a process of moderation on assessments and then learning material.

we will talk again next week

I picked up the foam on Friday. It was a block 1000×800x600 and I spent Saturday morning shaping it. I am using 600 x 600 x 50  heeble blocks on a pallet as the base because I want to  make it transportable.

I covered the base with plastic (blue sheet) and then the mould with plastic. Don’t forget the chimney!

Plastic underneath, and room for the chimney

I decided to make it in to halves because I wasn’t sure of how strong it was going to be. Needn’t have worried as it sets very hard.

We had a few problems with plastering it !! The pyrocrete wanted to slide off!! Ended up with a process that worked but need to consider a better solution than swearing at it!!! The plastic could be the main part of the problem.

I did one half and then used another piece of plastic to cover the join and then the second half.

It was easy to get the shell of the mould though.

I had a few holes here and there so I have patched them up with a bit of left over material. The two halves would be grouted together when installing.

Sliding the set oven off the foam

Things to do.

• The foam needs to be shaped a bit more to get more sloppy sides, shorten it  a little and lower it a little.
• I think the chicken wire is a good thing particularly around the chimney area as that is weak point. Also using across the middle will add extra strength.
• I have seen a recent pizza building video and they use thermal insulation next covered by Alfoil and then vermiculite and render. I am not sure all of that is necessary.
• I am keen to put a fire in it and make sure it doesn’t shatter, maybe next weekend.
• The product I used is Pyrocrete it would be good to find a wholesale supplier rather than buy it from the retail shops. I used two 20 kg bags .

Seperating the two halves of the oven...

Last Friday night was the Construction Skills Queensland Excellence Awards night. Here are some photos from the event.

My wife, Melody, and I.

Gary Hale, from CAIT, (one of the RTOs we work with), accepting their award.

Lately Graham has been tripping up to Mackay, and down the Brisbane, and on the Sunshine Coast delivering Frontline Management to CV Services employees.

This great course is a real asset to those who participate in it. “You learn managment skills, that are related directly to your current work situation. This is powerful because it means that you are only getting information that you will actually use, nothing else” said Graham when asked about the benefits of the course.

“I would recommend this course to any company who is interested in boosting the managment within their team, or to those who want to increase their staff productivity”.

Have you done a Frontline Management course in your workplace? Let us know how you found it in the comments section.

Graham has been short listed for the Contruction Skills Queensland “Trainer of the Year” which is an exciting recognition of Graham’s great work in training.

Graham has recently started an eLearning company- eLearning Australia which creates online training for trade and business sectors. Through that he is currently offering online electrical apprenticeships, career start (electrical) programs, frontline managment, and other company specific training. This is on top providing training for CV Services staff across Queensland- both online, and in person.

Graham has a Certificate II in Workplace Training and Assessing, as well as a Diploma of Business.

Last week Graham was a judge for the National Training Awards, Employer of the Year category, the category he led John Love Electrical to win in 2008.

The trip to Canberra left Graham impressed with the high quality of the entrants, and he was excited to see the great standard to training that employers are implementing in their businesses around the nation.

New expression of interest form available on the apprentice website!

Check it out here. It means that people who are interested in doing their apprenticeship with JLE, or doing work experience with us, then they can contact us through that!

Well, the first batch of training for 2008 at John Love Electrical is currently being undertaken at the Caboolture office. Some of the apprentices from Mackay have come down to doing a variety of courses including their telecommunications cabling, and some applied electricity subjects.

They’re doing some of their training with our new online system, which is really exciting.

New Online Training is available at http://grahamrodgers.com.au/training

Contact Talia for your Username and Password.