QHA_February_Mag_Web

TRAINING AND SAFETY with Ross Tims
THE REAL DEAL
MUCH OF THE POPULARITY OF QHA’S TRAINING
PROGRAMME IS OWED TO THE QUALITY OF
TWO DEDICATED INDUSTRY TRAINERS - BETH
MACPHERSON AND KELLIE HOURIGAN.
Kellie and Beth believe quality training should be fun
QHA REVIEW | 34
You won’t find them reading off a PowerPoint
presentation, worshipping at the temple of wrotelearning
or fudging answers to tricky questions.
Instead, you’ll get your RSA, RSG, RMLV or other
industry certification delivered with an expert and
personable touch.
“We pride ourselves on quality training and fun
training,” Beth says. “I think that’s the way it’s got to be
because you don’t learn a lot unless you’re
having fun.”
Beth and Kellie have delivered liquor, gaming and
hospitality courses for the QHA for about the last 10
years. Before that they’d each had industry careers
working long, gruelling hours in hotels.
“So I thought I’ll give it a crack, “ Kellie says. “ I’ve
never been on stage and I’ve never done anything like
it before so I tried it and I liked it.”
Beth has worked in the industry for over 30 years,
operating pubs with her husband and was the first
female to manage an Australian RSL club. She was
inspired to become a trainer after undertaking
training herself.
“Spencer Higgins, who wrote the original RSA in
Australia, was training and I went up to him one day
and I said, ‘I feel like a change, I’d like to be a trainer
and do what you do’. And he gave me a passion for
RSA and compliance, which everybody thought was
crazy because nobody likes compliance.”
Both women have developed their approach to hotel
industry training through raw experience, having
taught a variety of people in settings large and small,
and learning from the complex dynamics that the
interactive exchange of ideas presents.
“We deal with a lot of managers,” Beth says. “A lot of
them have done these courses four or five times, so
we’ve got to make the courses different to the ones
they’ve done before.”
“We bounce ideas off each other about how to
train particular groups,” Kellie adds. “We do things
a little bit differently. We have our materials that we
alter depending on the group. We change it up a bit
depending on the audience.”
Steering people away from the feeling they’re simply
being instructed is the key to keeping any group
engaged – and quizzes and stories seem to work best.
“I’m really lucky because I have 18 grandchildren and
eight children and a lot of them are in the industry,”
Beth says. “They give me a lot of material to use.”
Kellie says that giving quizzes brings out the
competitive streak in everyone.
“We ask them questions about things we’ve just
covered. There’s so much fun and a crazy amount of
laughter for a very small prize.”
The QHA offers mandatory courses for workers in
liquor and gaming licensed premises as well as a
range of hospitality and WH&S training.
To find out more call us on 07 3221 6999
or visit www.qha.org/training.