Today I’m with Richard Stokes. Richard is the CEO of the Australian Boarding Schools Association (ABSA).
ABSA, as the leading authority in Australia on boarding for school-aged children, promotes the interests and well-being of boarders, boarding staff, boarding parents and boarding institutions in Australia. It is an organisation that fosters collegiality and professionalism at a regional and federal level and across many parts of the world. ABSA continues to advance the profile of boarding and best practice in boarding and facilitates communication on boarding matters between schools, hostels, educational bodies and governments both in Australia and overseas.
Now that’s the brochure spiel… Richard brings decades of boarding school experience to his role. In fact without him ABSA wouldn’t exist as it does today and serve to educate thousands of boarding staff each year.
4000 boarding staff across Australia with a turnover rate of 25% ensures that Richard is never going to be able to retire! Did you know that ABSA offers Certificate level training right through to Masters of Residential Education and boarding school staff can pursue a career wholey and soley devoted to managing boarding houses within a school. It begins with Base Level 1 Duty of Care training and goes on to Active Duty, in between there’s a vast array of Certificates staff can undertake, leading to a Masters and then there’s the Emerging Boarder Leaders program. Staff do not have to be teachers to have a career in boarding.
In fact Richard tells me 60% of staff in boarding houses across Australia are not teachers. Anyway this is the core practice of ABSA, to train the people that look after our kids when they’re living away from home. I don’t know about you, but that really inspires me and how good is it to know that our boarding house staff aren’t just going through the motions. There’s a clear path to career progression and as you’ll hear from Richard, a definite enthusiasm for what they do.
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Thank you to Courtney Dunn for editing this episode.
Enjoy this conversation with Richard Stokes.