On Monday nine Central Desert Regional Council (CDRC) staff undertook a mock trial event for their final unit of Certificate IV Work Health and Safety (WHS) in the Alice Springs office. It took place in the lunchroom upstairs, with the presiding judge Rob Wallace, the trainer from Balance HR and Municipal Training that delivered the training.

In the trial one team represented NT Worksafe and the other team represented CDRC in a case study of a scenario where a contractor using a Council vehicle was injured in a roll-over on the road to Engawala. To succeed in the trial the teams had to reference legislation and prepare documents for submission.

The mock trial was the culmination of a Certificate IV in WHS that Council staff started back in November last year. The training was disrupted by COVID-19 so there were some long gaps in program delivery. Another three staff members will sit the final trial in February to get the sign off.

The verdict? Possibly guilty so the prosecution team (NT Worksafe) were the victors of the mock trial, but each staff member was a winner of the Certificate IV.

The aim of staff completing the certificate was for CDRC Managers based in Community as well as Alice Springs to be aware of their legislative responsibilities under WHS and for them to provide WHS leadership and knowledge to their teams – with the support of the CDRC People and Culture team of course!

Next year CDRC is offering Certificate IV in Local Government and have close to twenty staff enrolled. It’s great to see staff embracing training opportunities and achieving great results.

This weekend the Engawala Men’s basketball team will represent Central Desert Regional Council (CDRC) at the 2020 Southern Cup Basketball Tournament in Alice Springs. They will compete alongside teams from all over Central Australia in the two day tournament held over the weekend at the Alice Springs Basketball Stadium. The competition involves playing games of 5X5 (five a side) as well as 3X3 (three a side using half the court).

“I know that the men are excited to represent CDRC where we hope they will develop their skills on and off the court across the weekend,” said Aaron Tannahill, Youth, Sport and Recreation Operations Coordinator.

The competition will commence on Saturday at 8:30am, finishing at 5pm that day and on Sunday games will commence at 8:30am with finals held from 12:30pm. In addition, participants will complete a community coaching and referee education session on Friday night.

Photo: A game from last year’s competition.