Colin Stone

“Work smarter, not harder” is what Colin Stone tells his students all the time.  That way, things will evolve much more smoothly and you will achieve more.
 
With an obvious passion for the building and construction industry, Colin went into teaching for the thrill and enjoyment he derives from transferring his knowledge to up and coming, aspiring carpenters, and in seeing them achieve.

Colin’s 30 years in the trade includes more than 20 as a self employed carpenter, cabinet maker and residential builder.

Colin assists students apply their learned skills and expand their knowledge through the experience of working on live projects.  An example is the project Chisholm is involved in with the Police Academy.

The project came about partially through a former staff member who indicated the police force needed some work done.  So a project was developed where the police paid for the materials and Chisholm supplied the labour.

Colin runs the job and organises it all with the students and with cooperation from other staff members and the police force.

He put the whole package together, specifically in relation to organising suppliers for the Police Academy to purchase through.

Colin was also given the task of taking students, step by step, through the design process, costing exercises, logistics of getting materials to and from the work site and going through the exercise of implementation – that is, doing the actual task.

But the greatest benefit for students is that they are exposed to communicating with clients, seeing first hand how the job and the brief itself can often change, what the client expectations are, dealing with difficult situations and problem solving, where power could be cutting out on them and how to get around those sorts of situations.

“This has provided students with the experience of dealing with a variety of situations and learning different ways of going about doing things,” Colin said.

“When we are in a simulated workplace, you can’t always recreate real life circumstances, in real time.”

The Police Academy project puts the students at the coalface where they experience for themselves how things actually happen and how problems crop up minute by minute, rather than in a controlled environment like a simulation exercise.

Colin considers this a real achievement where students gain on-time, on-site work skills and learn to adopt themselves to problem solving exercise that occur in real work scenarios.