Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog

My first week has been very calm and I am being eased in gently to the Transportation Business Group. Within the roads section, where I am initially placed, life is relatively quiet whilst awaiting the tender proposals submitted prior to Christmas to come back with responses whilst at the same time waiting for the business community to fully get back to work after the festive break in order to offer up the potential of some new work.

This week I have been undertaking a series of e-learning modules as part of the induction process but also a series of educational modules that teach new employees how to effectively use the GHD systems in place and my part in them. I have been very impressed by the quality of the training and wish that John Holland had a similar system for when I started with them. (Note that JHG may well have this but it was not something that I was shown/directed to complete).

My first “real” work has been the involvement in a proposal to secure an option study for the “Staged Upgrade of Port Drive including Intersection with Kite Street”. Basically this is a 3.4km section of road that needs to be upgraded in order to provide sufficient capacity for the forecast 400% increase in port traffic over the next 15 years. How it works is that GHD do a risk analysis and authorize a set amount of money to be invested into the proposal at their own risk; in this instance approximately $12,000. Then they put together a proposal as to why they should win the work, how much it will cost and how they will go about it, backed up by recent project experience and CV’s of the staff. I volunteered to take the lead on commercial and legal matters to gain more exposure for the benefit of my DO’s and the team were happy for this. I’ve also picked up responsibility for generating the program of works and fee estimating. It’s an insight and enjoyable thus far.

Other items from this week has been the preparation of AER 5, finalization of my TMR 4 first draft and joining a gym. The benefit of working off of Curtis Island is that I can now leave where I work and do some phys in preparation for my return to green skin and there are actually gyms open outside of my working hours, a novelty compared to Gladstone!!!

Family is all doing well, Austyn has 3 more weeks before starting school, Elliot is enrolled into a nursery and Harrison is almost ready to walk. Lisa is just happy to see me for more than an hour a day and have a conversation with an adult, although this can sometimes prove to be debatable as she’s not overly keen on either project management theory or concrete quality assurance.

The weekend sees us going to a dinosaur petting zoo for Elliot’s belated birthday trip (the downside to a birthday on Christmas Day), I’m catching up with an old friend who was a BGE when I was his Sqn 2IC who’s successfully moved over to Oz last year and I’ll be finishing up my Course work in readiness for the thesis onslaught.

Until next time, stay safe and have fun!