When delivered by teachers who are themselves experienced bush regenerators, the Conservation and Ecosystem Management Cert III course provides an excellent basis for bush regenerators to gain the knowledge and skills to work in the industry.  However it is well understood that Vocational Education and Training (VET) courses are designed to work hand in hand with the employer’s mentoring of students in the workplace. This is because while a course can provide appropriate information and demonstrate techniques, the actual competencies of a bush regenerator are only really bedded down in the operator after a period of field experience, ideally under the guidance of a mentor.

The role of a bush regeneration mentor is not simply one where a team member is told what to do and is expected to follow orders. Instead the role involves stimulating the team member to think things through and ultimately understand the reasons why particular treatments are applied in different situations.  This places the team member in a vastly better position to make those many micro-decisions needed on a daily basis when working in highly variable natural environments.

AABR has a very  short list of volunteer mentors willing to assist people who genuinely do not have access to experienced mentors in the workplace.  But a strong industry needs all bush regeneration organisations, commercial or otherwise, to have sufficiently knowledgeable and skilled people in their teams to provide the necessary mentoring for their own staff. Having good mentors in the workplace leads to much more effective teams and makes it much more straightforward for an organisation’s staff to become accredited by AABR.   

We plan to produce a ‘hot tips’ guide for bush regeneration mentors in the future…so watch this space!!

Tein McDonald

Chair, AABR accreditation sub-committee