Trotting out for jobs training

BALLARAT Turf Club staff are putting the call out for people seeking training and employment to work in the racing industry as part of a more than three-million-dollar initiative from the State Government.

With the training program announced last month by Minister for Racing, Anthony Carbines, BTC CEO Belinda Glass said the organisation is encouraging anyone interested in an equine industry role.

“The program’s been running since March and we had our first intake of stable staff recruits later that month,” she said.

“There’s since been 80 expressions of interest and we have two more stable staff programs running this month. They’re one-week intensive programs with theory and practical hands-on.

“The aim is to reach the amounts of recruits until December and then there’s a few more months of training available for them until March.”

The training program is aimed at providing 100 new jobs for Ballarat’s racing industry with a focus on entry-level stable hand roles.

Ms Glass said she’ll be interested to see the long-term impact the program will have on local racing employment.

“I’m really pleased in the uptake since March but it will be good to see the results through to the end of the year,” she said.

“There’s the opportunity for us to provide training for participants to get their truck licence to drive a float truck or be a treadmill operator or to receive admin traineeships.

“To have 80 expressions of interest in a market where there’s very low unemployment, I think is not too bad.”