Leader in corporate training
ONE of Australia’s leading corporate education companies, PD Training, has targeted Western Sydney as a region of strong potential for its training programs after announcing it has been accredited by the prestigious International Association for Six Sigma Certification (IASSC).
The accreditation means that PD Training is the only Australian based firm qualified to deliver the globally recognised business benchmark training.
“The Six Sigma Accreditation has been a global business improvement movement for more than 20 years, but Australia has lagged behind without a domestic provider of the global standard of accreditation,” said PD Training CEO, Paul Findlay.
“The accreditation will enable us to deliver world class business improvement training programs to Australian businesses resulting in improved capacity to compete in a global environment.”
Six Sigma is one of the most popular business management methodologies in history. Its global implementation has seen a tremendous return on investment for participating businesses.
Mr Findlay said Western Sydney is one of Australia’s most dynamic markets in terms of diversity of business and regional growth. He said the region had a sophisticated business culture that demanded world class education.
PD Training is an Australian business success story; having been started by its two founders just four years ago from their kitchens. In the years since foundation the business has grown its annual turnover 9-fold every year and their staff 5-fold.
The business recently opened its first office in the US, one of the world’s most competitive corporate education markets. With around 6,000 training organizations in Australia, how does a business evolve in just four years from start-up to become a leader in a field with global export aspirations?
The key, says Mr Findlay lies in the systems the business has developed and its unfaltering focus and investment in technology and teaching talent that enables clients book their course effortlessly, anywhere, anytime and then engage in a world class learning experience.
The systems developed by PD Training mean that everything is systemised with a single click through its website and back-end cloud based custom built systems.
The administration process of getting the initial quote, to choosing a trainer, courses, room bookings, invoicing, and feedback from both the participants and the trainer takes about 45 seconds and can be done on a tablet.
“In this way, we can look at a job from every perspective and get 360 degree feedback,” said Mr Findlay, who worked as a management consultant before starting PD Training with corporate trainer, Karen Winfield.
“Our administration is cloud based and paperless. This greatly reduces our overheads and allows us to focus on delivering outstanding services to our clients.
“From a business continuity point of view, if our office burnt down tomorrow, it would have no affect on our ability to trade.
“We’d just go down the road and buy some tablets and resume business, because all of our information is held in the cloud.”
PD Training has successfully married technology to a people based business.
“Our focus is on people - both staff and clients. We are constantly working to meet our client’s needs to provide the best possible training experiences,” Mr Findlay said.
For more information about PD Training options email west@pdtraining.com.au or visit www.pdtraining.com.au
Blacktown's bold bid to be a smarter city
A BOLD plan exists to change perceptions, encourage investment, attract higher-order jobs and create a regional city – that’s the ambitious aim of Blacktown City Council
While traditional industries are the backbone of the local economy – representing 35.1 per cent (2011) of the city’s gross regional product (GRP) – Blacktown is exploring niche industry markets to broaden the city’s economic base and create a “smarter city”.
The exploration of niche markets to facilitiate and transform the city was important former Blacktown mayor, Alan Pendleton, told 150 business people at the Western Sydney- The Growth Agenda function.
The event was a partnership between the Property Council of Australia (NSW) and Western Sydney Business Connection, held at the WatervieW Conference Centre. in Bicentennial Park.
Clr Pendleton said the opening by Hewlett Packard of the $200 million Aurora regional cloud computing data centre,in Eastern Creek, was a “tremendous coup” for Blacktown.
Clr Pendleton, who is also chairman of the Parramatta-based Regional Development Australia-Sydney, said a realistic opportunity existed to grow an ICT sector in Western Sydney and that Blacktown is well placed to support such a culster.
He said Blacktown City Council was committed to growing the Western Sydney economic base and believed that Blacktown’s role was critical and could be substaintial.
He said the information and communication technology (ICT) sector in Blacktown had grown to $139 million, an increase of 4.0 per cent in 12 months.
To capitalise on a range of opportunities and attract investment, Clr Pendleton said council had adopted stage one of the Blacktown City Centre framework, which had been submitted to the Department of Planning and Infrastructure
“Our plan is deliberately bold,” he said.
He said council sought to create a corridor toalling 17 hectares of land for future commercial office space, with office blocks up to 18 storeys high, within a traditional CBD setting to attract higher-order jobs and help to close the employment gap which existed in the region.
“The next phases of the Blacktiown City Centre planning fraamework involve the creation of a business park and more intense use of the medical and health precinct that surrounds Blacktown Hospital.”
He said completed and current works to improve the amenity of the city included the stage one redevelopment of the Blacktown Showground, reprsenting a $15 million investment by council
Another initiative, has been the creation of a Village Green, which represented a $5 million investment in Blacktown emerging as a regional city.
He said when fully implemented the plan could provide an estimated employment capacity for up to 40,000 new when the current planned growth for the centre was 5000 jobs.
He said major corporations in the city included Arnott’s, De Bortoli Australia, #m Purification, Cadbury-Schweppes, One Steel, Sharp and LG, which contrinuted to Blacktown’s GRP of $10.7 billion annually – up by 38 per cent in the past five years – contributing, in turn,12.6 per cent of Western Sydney’s $85 billion GRP..
Clr Pendleton said with the state of the NSW economy it was beholden on Western Sydney councils to “forge a new paradigm”.
PM to open $50M medical research institute
By Red Dwyer
PRIME Minister, Julia Gillard, will officially open the $50 million state-of-the art Ingham Institute for Applied Medical research, in Liverpool on October 23.