2020 Applications Now Open

Developing tomorrow’s leaders – people with the knowledge and skills to collaboratively drive the future – is a longstanding goal of FWPA for the Australian forest and wood products industry. For Our Future, the Regional Forestry Collaborative Leadership Program, addresses this by offering professional-level leadership development to industry participants.

The training is subsidised by FWPA and delivered in partnership with the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation & polykala.

For information course content, please contact Jen Wressell

To minimise barriers to participation, there is a nominal fee of $1,000 per participant, plus personal travel costs. All other costs will be borne by FWPA.

Building on the successful previous years

In its inaugural year, 28 emerging forestry leaders graduated from the program which involved an intensive four-day residential session in either Western Australia or South Australia before coming together for a five-day learning program in Melbourne.

Experiential training modules allowed participants to explore organisational and industry challenges, conflict resolution, dynamic leadership and high level networking skills, through sessions with diverse industry experts.  Participants provided strong, positive feedback on the value and impact of the training.

In 2019 here were 46 managers from across the sector who attended a first session on local engagement and leadership skills, which was hosted in Tasmania, Gippsland and South East Queensland and Northern New South Wales.

Participants then gathered in Canberra for a combined second session on national collaboration, as well as current and future industry issues and the opportunities they may present.

Throughout the sessions, participants engaged in experiential group learning in order to:

• Develop strong leadership capability, from critical thinking to negotiation, facilitation and communication; and
• Gain a deeper understanding of the shared challenges and opportunities faced by the industry across Australia to work towards practical, collaborative solutions.

See report on the 2019 program

Participant comments included:

‘I felt I have learnt a lot about my personal leadership skills and group dynamics’
‘Keen to implement some techniques’
‘For me it is managing and noticing my emotional involvement in different situations’
‘The content was excellent and great for my learning’
‘All presenters were very professional. The content was very engaging’
‘I found the course challenged my thoughts on my place in the forest and wood products industry. It has given me the confidence to step forward’
‘Most grateful for this course. I have made many realisations about my previous leadership style and have implemented several changes learnt from the course. I have further reflected upon my career and now have new aspirations’
‘Provided me with some great tools and a deeper understanding of leadership’
‘Definitely challenged me and I’ve grown because of that’
‘The course has certainly changed how I view leadership and made me realise I don’t need to wait for a promotion to start being a leader’
‘I was lucky enough to implement skills learnt in Inverloch straight into the workplace, these will be skills and networks for life’
‘On reflection I will take away so much but the relationships with my staff and within my organisation have blossomed since taken on this course’

Program to develop mid-level managers to increase their capacity to take national leadership roles within individual companies or the broader industry by building stronger regional and national cohorts that have exposure to current and future industry issues and best practice leadership skills.

If you wish to register your interest for future FWPA regional and collaborative leadership training, please fill in the below form.