UG Training
Day Release Training (DRT) continues to offer challenges to all team members with round 5 concluding end of October. Thank-you to Kestrel Mine for hosting the round and I’m sure all team members have valued the experience training and using the facilities at Kestrel. Round 6 is scheduled to commence at Blackwater station Wednesday 1st November with CABA Response Operations on the agenda. For those in the Dysart region round 6 training will commence Saturday 18th November covering CABA Response Operations as well.
Congratulations to all the teams that competed at the EK Healy and for the top four teams you will now be looking forward to the Australian Competition being hosted south of the border near Narrabri. It was exciting to see the new Virtual Reality system in use at the competition and hopefully it will not be long until it is incorporated into the Day Release Training. It is another platform for delivering our training as we move with the times.
As we move into the warmer months it will be important to ensure you turn up to training well hydrated as the final run for the year includes a range of deployments into the Hot & Humid environments.
Look forward to seeing you there!
Recruit Courses
QMRS has now completed 6 Recruit courses for 2017 with 1 more scheduled for completion in November. In total we’ve welcomed 48 Recruits into the rescue fold and I’m sure that each of you will enjoy a long and productive career in Mines Rescue. For those returning to their crews you will now have the added responsibility and or expectation that you will play a key role in the crew should any emergency situation arise. Your crew mates will look to you for assistance, leadership and courage which are all core skills and attributes gained and built on during your 3 weeks at the station. First Aid skills can never be underestimated and the assumption from your crew mates will be that as a Rescue Team Member you’re the go to person. This ties in nicely with QMRS now formalising the requirement to have and maintain your First Aid Competencies following a review of the training system so that all people attending the recruit course must have a current FA certificate to attend. So dust of your First Aid Certificate and make sure it’s in date and your CPR is refreshed. These will not only help your mines rescue training but are great life skills to maintain and offer assistance to your loved ones and the community.
During the last 2 courses we visited Ensham, Kestrel, Oaky North and Grasstree Mines respectively which gave the recruits a great opportunity to practice their core skills in the real environment. Simulations at the stations are great for most skills but there are some competencies that are best practiced and trained in the mine environment so I thank these four mines and the site Management for granting us access and allowing us to train on site.
We continue to have experienced Team members come and assist with the recruits and I thank those who attended and offered advice and displayed all the key attributes that we expect from our seasoned campaigners.
I trust the training has been effective and valuable so far for 2017 and we look forward to receiving feedback from you on the Training, facilities and technology at QMRS so that we can continue to improve the experience for all concerned.
Until next time,
Regards from the UG Training Team
(Princey, JP, GT, Woody and Steve)