Excellence in People & Skills Development

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You’re thinking about entering the Excellence in People and Skills Development Category? Excellent!

Nominations are open for consideration of the Excellence in People and Skills Development at the annual Hunter Manufacturing Awards.

Registration takes 5 minutes. Applications are open from 8 May and close 19 July. If you have been unable to meet the deadline, please contact HMA to make an alternate arrangement.

Please read the following definition before completing your application form to ensure you are submitting in the correct category.

Definitions & Guidelines

To assist you with this application the judges have provided some guidelines.

When providing your answers, the “For Example” / guidelines we have suggested for each question are not intended to be exhaustive. They are designed as examples and prompts to help you understand the judges’ requirements. It is important that where you state that you have evidence in support of the specific question you are answering, you need to provide that evidence – usually, a generic brochure or company overview is not sufficient.

People and Skills Development

Nominations are invited from any manufacturing company that has introduced an innovative People and Skills Development programme that has contributed to an improvement in the performance of a manufacturing company (provide tangible evidence of these improvements where possible).

The People and Skills Development programme may be in partnership with any training provider, registered training organisation (RTO) or other company, however, the application into the category is open only to the manufacturing company that employs those undertaking the programme.

An organisation with People and Skills Development focus is one that manages people development, their work activities and their performance with the goal of optimising current and future use of individual talent and the cultivation of collaborative teams/units to support current & evolving business needs.

The judges will look for examples of innovation in People and Skills Development demonstrated by, but not limited to, ‘out of the ordinary’ concept, provision of meaningful, measurable, ‘portable’ qualifications, improvements in overall company skill levels and operational performance, evidence of ‘co-operative’ training arrangements, use of multiple delivery vehicles, raising the capability level of teams to improve collaboration and customer service, improvements in leadership capability, employee engagement and culture and morale, use of or embedding of Diversity and Inclusion and community involvement.

Note – Applicants may find that their application into the Excellence in People and Skills Development category may also be a ‘fit’ for another category, such as Rising Star Award, Apprentice of the Year Award, Safety, Manufacturing Process, etc. By adapting the information to fit the criteria of other categories you give yourself the opportunity for your product, process etc to be profiled in more than one sector.

Download the full application pack and category questions

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Example Information Required

Each of the listed criteria must be addressed and where possible, evidence provided

Photographs, drawings, etc, may be included as an attachment to this application form and should be labelled clearly for the judges. E.g. Question 3 – evidence provided

Please address the following criteria and restrict the content of each criteria response to 200 words or less. For example; Question 1 can only have a maximum of 200 words.

Maximum File Size

The entry form allows a maximum file size of 20MB to be uploaded. If you are having issues with the size of your example files, please contact Carol McEwan on info@hma.org.au or call 0438 242 899 to make an alternate arrangement to send your file(s).

Download the full application pack and category questions

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Judging Criteria & Values

Below is a breakdown of each question, the criteria judges will be looking for and the value of each question.

Question Judging Criteria Value
  1. Describe the People and Skills Development process and any qualifications or other outcomes that participants receive. This may be nationally recognised or internally recognised.
  • Is the training institution based or does it occur in the workplace?
  • How are the participants selected and what criteria are used? Is the programme open to all employees and does the type of training vary depending on the role of the employee?
  • Do the participants get any certification at the end of the training?
  • Other

5 / 60
  1. How does this People and Skills Development process meet the business requirements of your organisation and is it part of a documented business plan, workforce development and capability development plan?
  • Does the training support the implementation of a new process, piece of equipment or identified skill shortages in your organisation such a leadership, project management or lean manufacturing?
  • In other words what is the link between this training and the goals of your company?
  • Other

10 / 60
  1. What do you see as innovative about this particular People and Skills Development process? Innovations may include factors such as the source of participants, the content or delivery mode, partnerships with other companies or several deliverers.
  • Is there any use of on-line learning so that personal and professional life has minimal disruption? The innovation may be with the content of the training or the delivery method.
  • Other

15 / 60
  1. Describe any benefits of this training to safety, environmental sustainability or the health and welfare of staff.
  • Include here any outcomes that may not have been predicted in the planning stages or other benefits not directly related to the financial bottom line.
  • Other

10 / 60
  1. Show how this People and Skills Development process has improved the business outcomes of the organisation, either through increased output, reduced costs, delivery performance or customer satisfaction.
  • Include statistics on improved re-work rates, lowered wastage, reduced bottlenecks or increase in through put.
  • Skills development programs may be targeted at management level skills and so a link should be shown between improved skills and outcomes.
  • Other

10 / 60
  1. Describe the benefits of this People and Skills Development programme for participants.
  • The programme may provide the participants with skills and knowledge that can be used in other parts of their life or passed on to family members.
  • It may be that the up-skilled workforce feels more secure and content in their job.
  • Other

10 / 60

Download the full application pack and category questions

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Previous Year's Winner

Excellence In People & Skills Development – DSI Underground

2018 Winner – DSI Underground

DSI Underground has been on a mission to implement lean principles in the organisation since 2016.

Based on an organisational job role analysis the skills required by all staff were identified and appropriate training delivered using a variety of methods including external trainers, on the job improvement projects and study tours.

In 2018 DSI demonstrated improved safety outcomes, better customer service and improved productivity directly linked to this programme.

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Please Register first before completing your application form. Registration takes 5 minutes and close 19 July. Applications are open from 8 May and close 19 July.

Follow the below link to start the registration process.

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