Training Specialist

**The organisation**:
The Uniting Church in Australia (the Church) is a large uniquely Australian Christian denomination in Australia with heritage from historical reformed evangelical denominations. In Queensland, the Uniting Church has around 250 congregations and has early childhood, schools, colleges and large community services (such as UnitingCare Queensland and Wesley Mission Queensland).

The Uniting Church is multicultural, committed to reconciliation with First Peoples, calls for reconciliation across its communities and aims to use its people and property resources wisely and in the furtherance of God's mission in the world.

**The position**:
Uniting Early Learning is seeking a dynamic Training Specialist to join the team on a full-time fixed term contract. The role commences in January 2025 and will be a contract for 18 months.

**Position purpose**:
The purpose of this role is to co-ordinate and deliver a range of compliance and operational best practice training (e.g. face to face, on the job, online) to all employees across the Uniting Education Early Learning (UEL) portfolio, including family day care, in-home care, centre-based, and outside school hours care educators, coordinators and support staff, to develop the capacity and capabilities of our service teams in order to meet their legislated obligations and provide best practice education and care,. This position undertakes the design, development, oversight and evaluation of all training activities liaising with publishers for the creation, maintenance of any on-line course content in the Learning Management System (LMS). The role also models training outcomes by performing Educator, interim Asst Director or Centre Director roles as required to support centre performance.

**Key responsibilities**:

- Manage the implementation and delivery of training activities, as per our L&D Framework, to develop and build the knowledge, skills and capabilities of new and existing educators, coordinators, service leaders and other staff across the UEL portfolio.
- Manage and deliver the UEL training program and associated activities in line with requirements and service needs, including development of a training schedule/matrix, oversight of e-learning and in person modules/systems specific to childcare, compliance, induction and orientation processes within UEL.
- Drive compliance of mandatory training across the UEL portfolio, escalating compliance concerns to your manager as required.
- In consultation with the Learning and Development Manager, develop and maintain a training plan and record for staff across all service types arranging for uploading courses and setting up programs/certifications in the LMS ensuring that sufficient controls are in place to meet legislated training obligations and compliance with the Learning and Development Framework.
- Source and create resources and tools, in consultation with the UEL Management Team and Learning & Development Team, that support the training program to achieve best practice outcomes and approaches within all service environments (and adhere to copyright usage requirements if/when adopting external resources)
- Consult with SMEs to ensure that content of training modules and other educational resources align with the needs and objectives of the training program.
- Evaluate the efficacy of the UEL training program to ensure it meets early learning needs, is fit-for-purpose, is compliant with sector specific and legislative requirements, and is reflective of emergent trends in best practice.
- Assist the Learning and Development Manager in the development, delivery and assessment of the training needs analysis and skills matrix for UEL services.
- Liaise with local professionals, support agencies, complementary services, and relevant government departments to build networks to support delivery of a robust training program.
- Report on delivery of training program, packages and modules and identify improvements to modules, policy and process, and the work environment that have been identified in collaboration with service staff and other relevant stakeholders while delivering training.
- Undertake periodic reporting, including developing and providing evaluation and accountability documentation to key stakeholders such as funding bodies.
- Assist the Applications & Operations Business Officer with the training of UEL system users in Kronos
- Support operational centre-based day-to-day activities when required either as an Educator, Assistant Director or Director where there are temporary staff shortages (ensuring compliance with the relevant position description) or as an expert resource to work with employees (eg through on the job training) to remedy significant errors or breaches of regulations.
- Act as an SME to advise on centre-based issues where there is an operational need to train/retrain employees or teams in gaps in their knowledge, consultation with relevant teams across the Queensland