Workforce Skills and Training - Lismore, New South Wales

rachel drew

Attended my CPR and First Aid course with these guys today and truly can't recommend them highly enough! The class environment was extremely welcoming and comfortable.
A huge thank you to Nance, Lynece and Sev for sharing with me all your knowledge and skills, you are all extremely professional and it was a pleasure to participate and learn from you.

Alison Nolan

Recently completed my CPR with Nancy! This is my third year doing the course with her and she is always nothing but professional and accomodating.
I always enjoy doing my CPR with Nancy because she makes it fun while also getting the work done in a timely matter!

Rebecca Hourigan

I don’t know if something was going on in the background amongst the staff of today’s first aid workshop but I am absolutely gob smacked.
Sev did absolutely incredible - so clam and collected and did everything right by his students!
Though this educational experience was the worst experience as an adult!
I experienced my first stand off with Nancy about the definition of respect and let me tell you it was not on my todo list for it to turn into a Jerry springer episode but something needed to be said as I feel the way Nancy belittles her student openly, she has gotten away with this to much and I personally needed to stand up for myself and other student who were effected.

It started off with casual unprofessional swearing from Nancy when distributing the workshop information.
I let that slide.

Secondly- Being targeted as a student in front of the whole class as someone who ‘doesn’t shut up’ when asking too many questions about the learning content provided by Nancy (this happened on several occasions with my whole class backing me) making me feel like I wasn’t allowed to ask any questions at all about the unit I was paying for.

Thirdly - Nancy literally telling a grown adult in front of the whole class and I quote “you are the rudest student I have ever had. You have been on your phone and had your books open the whole class. I never want to see you back here again. I should have confiscated your phone at the beginning of the day” mind you. This student was doing a refresher course and chose to do the whole course BY CHOICE so she was ahead in the theory section and chose to stay quiet on her phone rather is cause a potential disruption.

So then after two staff tried to stand up in front of the class calling us all rude because we were all contributing together ‘as a class’ I just had to say something as we were being made out to be children all because the class was so involved with each other contributing to the actual class content but all Nancy cared about was getting out on time and her PROFITS!
Over hearing her complain to another colleague that she only had 12 out of 30 students in her class today and that she’s running at a loss on her profits! This was the beginning of the day, the class hadn’t even kicked off…
Fed up with being bullied, I felt the need to not only defend myself and the other young lady she bullied and belittled in front of everyone, I ask the class if I was in the wrong by speaking up and all of them shook there head and had my back.

My mind is blown. I will not be returning to any training under Nancy, she is a horrible, angry human and I don’t want to be subjected to her belittling again.

Anyway!
Sev, thank you for your kindness and I’m sorry that your mentors are not setting a great example.

Please note: The whole time the class was actually being documented.
It will be reported to work force Australia and also The fair work trading ombudsman.

IdratherhaveRain Anyday

CAN NO LONGER RECOMMEND
We should feel like grateful peasants.The head instructor Nancy, introduced herself by bragging that this was her 10th year in business, she added that we should be grateful to her because she is actually missing out on money by having smaller classes of 20 or less instead of a larger class (not a good feel as a student). She randomly put some chocolates on the floor (not on tables which would’ve been polite) and said "if anyone wants some chocolates come get them" I wasn't willing to eat off the floor (sorry not sorry).
Throughout the morning session the ringtone of the little mermaid kept going off LOUDLY in addition to Nancy constantly walking through the training floor in front of the male presenter, occasionally interjecting her opinion. I found this very rude and distracting from the learning, as the male speaker had to keep stopping his lesson. At some points she was on the phone and could be heard talking during the lesson.
Swearing and belitting. I observed Nancy swearing at students aggresively at different points. When a female student got the wrong answer to the infant CPR ratio on her paper, Nancy called her out in front of the class and laughed at her, belittling the woman who seemed humiliated. A young male student was asking questions to the male presenter, Nancy walked through and told him to "shut up and stop talking so we can get out of here before 6pm!" he never did get all his questions answered relating to course content. A female student stepped out to answer a phone call, and Nancy berated her in front of the class calling her "disrespectful and rude" saying that she did not want to see her back in her class ever. The female student trying to explain her reason was cut off by Nancy stating "I should've confiscated your phone you have been on your phone all day!" the female student sat in tears with Nancy showing no regard towards her. I note that from 10am-1pm Nancy was not present in the training, but for the time she was there, she was menacing, loud and disruptive. A female student asked a question regarding gunshot wounds and defibrillation to which she was told to "ask the triple 0 operator" the male presenter seemed annoyed by the questions - presumably because he himself did not know the answers. The same student later asked about anaphylaxis signage the male presenter told her to "ask your boss" because he did not know the laws for signage.
A money grab.*Coffee, tea, and sugary biscuits provided but water must be paid for, this seemed out of balance given that there did not appear to be other clean drinking water available to students (good thing I wasn't experiencing heat stress as I forgot to bring cash). A group activity, we were asked to identify venomous/stings/bites of native animals. When someone couldn’t identify the category for platypus and neither could the instructor, a female student looked up the info on her phone and shared the answer with the class. Nancy loudly criticised her and told her to put her phone away calling her rude. A student answered a question about bluebottles wrong and the male presenter agreed with their answer and did not offer the correct answer.Talking about money and students within ear shot. Nancy could be seen and heard off to the side talking to a colleague negatively about students present and absent (very unprofessional). I observed her telling students on separate occasions to “Shut up, you’ve been talking all day!” they “are rude and disrespectful!” when her erratic and inappropriate behaviour was questioned by one student Nancy asked the student if they “wanted to leave and not get their certificate” I found her standover tactics extremely unprofessional. I hear Ballina offers this course (worth the extra $10) the students are not subjected to the potential bipolar tendencies of a middle-aged women who may or may not be on drugs, potentially going through menopause, or having a mental episode or perhaps any combination of the above. SAVE YOUR MONEY, DO NOT sign up with THIS COMPANY (unless you are a masochist).

jack feakes

I left this place shaking from anxiety…
Never in my adult life have I witnessed such unprofessionalism.
The treatment from Nancy and her older female colleague directed at a few of the students was absolutely appaling.
At one point Nancy said to a student “you haven’t shut up all day” and when the student defended herself by saying that she paid to learn so it was well within her right, Nancy replied with “well you asked too many questions”
Another student looked to be in tears after being called disrespectful and told by Nancy “I should have confiscated your phone this morning”
I will not be returning.

SJM61

Rules should be stated clearly at the start of training to avoid the BS berating that I witnessed and experienced today. Dont want folks working ahead, dont put the books on the tables, simple. Dont want people using phone, ask them NICELY at the start to refrain. all adults, no children present but the tone was condescending. Saw students get torn up by some very unprofessional trainers today one who was gone for a good portion of the day. heard phone going off at the trainers desk repeatedly was distracting.
-By the way young fella didnt/couldnt answer a lot of questions today. he told a few people to just go with whatever they "felt was right". I came to learn the right way to do things and I paid good money. if i wanted a class based on feelings i would've signed up for therapy instead.

Justahuman

Class was a stop and start rush scenario. several mentions of hurrying up to finish early. witnessed several students have their questions shut down by the instructors without an answer being provided. swearing by the trainers, students told to shut up, accused talking too much, of being on their phones after finishing their work. charge for drinking water. one lady was publicly made fun of for having put down the wrong answer in the cpr session, another yelled at for using a phone to answer a question when trainer didn't know the answer.
The little mermaid ringtone will be forever burned into my head as apparently one of the trainers forgot to silence their own phone THE WHOLE DAY. Found the whole experience unprofessional and too overwhelming for my taste. plenty of other companies out there for this course who treat customers with respect, even the ones who ask lots of questions.

Ryan Anderson

Professional and friendly, Nancy and the team are fantastic trainers and will happily come back regularly for CPR and First Aid!