Swinburne Helps On-job Training At Bayer
The Age
Friday April 19, 1996
PHARMACEUTICALS manufacturer Bayer Australia takes on 25 to 30 casual workers every month at its Mulgrave plant to augment its 90-strong permanent production staff.
Depending on their experience (and experience is not necessary to find work at Bayer), the casual workers are employed in various tasks, and the numbers employed depend on production requirements month by month.
Bayer is the world's largest pharmaceuticals manufacturer, turning over more than $40 billion annually. Its Mulgrave plant manufactures a wide range of medical products including tablets, creams, fluids and diagnostic sticks such as those used by diabetics for self-testing of sugar levels.
Casual workers play an important part at Bayer, says operations director Mr Ian Coventry. He said the company, like most others, preferred experience, but those without it could be trained in-house.
In-house training at Bayer recently took on a new enthusiasm following a training and education agreement struck between the company and Swinburne University of Technology.
As Mr Coventry said, training was the lifeblood of any large manufacturing facility and it had been felt that Bayer needed a firmer structure for the way it schooled existing and future workers.
Most training in a factory, whatever its nature, is done at the job site and in front of the machinery or plant being used. But Bayer wanted to take its workers a step further and teach them more - about production scheduling, cost control, productivity objectives and methods, and more.
Ian Coventry said the answer appeared to be a link with Swinburne, and talks were held between the two late last year.
The idea was to sound out Bayer workers and see if they might embrace the idea of better technical schooling for the jobs they did, and the result was a pleasant surprise.
``When we thought of boosting our training commitment we thought we might be fortunate if we got even half-a-dozen employees into the scheme. But when we broached the idea at a meeting at Mulgrave, we were amazed at the response. There were 25 people in the meeting and every one of them raised their hand when asked if they would like to take part.
``We have more than 25, however, because once word got around among those eligible, our response rate became as near to 100 per cent as matters, and in the short time the courses have been running, we have had excellent feedback."
Mr Coventry said he believed that what attracted the company's workers was the structure of the course, which culminates, for those who see it through to the end, in a certificate in pharmaceutical manufacturing carrying full accreditation for anyone wishing to extend their study.
``And, we are helping to create a bank of better-skilled labor for our particular industry," he said. ``There are some half-a-dozen pharmaceuticals manufacturers operating in Melbourne and they are our competitors, but to have a better- qualified labor force in an industry that we share can only benefit all of us, because in future we might need to recruit crucial production staff.
``To be able to draw on a solid local labor force will help us then and it will help our competitors when they need personnel.
" Swinburne lecturers take some classes at the Bayer plant in Mulgrave, and others are taken by key Bayer staff identified by Swinburne as potential in-house lecturers.
``This is a strong point of the entire training initiative, " Mr Coventry said. ``We did not really want our people to take this certificate course by having to attend classes at Swinburne or anywhere else.
``We felt it would be much better if they improved their skills and undertook their studies right here at the factory and we are sure this suits the workers as well.
``They receive expert lectures from Swinburne staff and the specialist staff Swinburne have located amongst our key technicians, so that the course is a combination of study at the place of work and putting it into practice straight away on the shop floor."
Ian Coventry is a great nephew of Collingwood Football Club legends Gordon and Syd Coventry. Gordon holds the goal-kicking record and Syd was a Brownlow medallist in the 1920s.
A keen Magpies supporter, Ian remembers his great uncles and how proud he was (and is) of their achievements.
``Even especially talented footballers like Gordon and Syd Coventry realised they had to train to improve themselves and stay up to scratch - it's the same for workers, whatever they do," he said.
The Bayer/Swinburne training arrangement has been deemed so sound in its format, Swinburne is using it as a model, and has prepared a similar program for ``export" to a large grain feed company in Gunnedah, New South Wales.
People interested in working at Bayer should make initial contact with personnel executive Ms Cheryl Borg on (03) 263 2300. Prospective casual employees are entered into an employment ``bank" and are contacted on behalf of Bayer by an employment agency as the need for labor arises.
Bayer is an international company employing thousands of staff in 150 countries. The Bayer group of companies is diversified among industries covering pharmaceuticals, plastics, polymers, foods, perfumes, industrial chemicals, dyes and pigments, rubber, fibres, household pest control products, general consumer household products, and agriculture/horticulture.
© 1996 The Age