Steve Treble found his calling as a trainer and assessor. Here he explains what he does on a daily basis and why he loves his work.

Teaching teachers would be intimidating for many people, but for Steve Treble it’s all in a day’s work.

As a trainer and assessor for the Professional Educator College (PEC), Steve’s role is both challenging and rewarding in teaching current and future teachers.

At Chisholm he helps deliver the Educator Passport professional development programs, whereby educators increase their teaching and assessing capability and earn points for undertaking professional development.

Steve and his colleagues are responsible for the delivery of the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment (TAE). As such, a large part of his day-to-day role is teaching prospective teachers how to train and assess within the VET sector.

Steve says he feels like he was born to do it. “My favourite thing is when people get it. I’ll be explaining something to someone and maybe they’ve struggled with it for whatever reason, but all of a sudden they have that lightbulb moment. I always say that teachers are powered by the oohs and the aahs when people get it. Seeing my students grow is very rewarding.”

The role is one that Steve inadvertently fell into.

Steve started his career in marketing and accounting. During his time working for one of the big four banks, he learnt a lot about computer software programs like Microsoft Office.

Eventually Steve left the banking sector and started working as a contractor. However, during his contract gigs, he often found he would spend significant time showing people how to do things, rather than doing the role he was contracted to do.

And so, an idea was born. Steve decided to become a trainer.

In 1995, he taught Microsoft Office applications, then migrated into teaching earlier versions of the TAE.

It was through this work that he was successful in getting a job with Chisholm delivering the TAE. “An opportunity arose to work at Chisholm, and I felt really comfortable with the Managers straight away,” he says. “The PEC team is awesome, I have really good managers/supervisors and I like what I teach. Teaching teachers is not easy, but I find it very rewarding.”

One of the biggest challenges of Steve’s career was when the RTO standards changed that required all teachers in the VET sector to upgrade their TAE in 2018. The changes were designed to introduce higher standards for trainers and assessors across the VET workforce, particularly in the assessment area.

Chisholm offered the upgrade to their staff, so Steve was involved in the project upgrading up to 800 teachers, and personally delivered training and assessed many of the candidates during this period. “I’d say that was my greatest career achievement,” Steve says. “It was pretty full-on, but I got some excellent feedback from the teachers about what they’d learnt and what they could apply in their practice, which is always rewarding.”

Another achievement Steve is proud of is being nominated as Educator of the Year at the Chisholm Education Awards. “I was jumping around the house in utter excitement when I found out that I had been nominated and I was even more excited when I got shortlisted,” he says.

In addition to his work at Chisholm, Steve has his own training business in the corporate landscape teaching everything from digital literacy in Microsoft Office and presentation skills to project management and team building. He has had opportunities to deliver training all over Australia and overseas in London, New York, Auckland and Port Moresby.

When he’s not training, Steve loves playing baseball and going to trivia nights, spending time with his grandson, hanging out with friends and camping where there’s no phone reception. “I always say I’m living my dream, and I honestly feel that way,” he says. “I just want to keep doing my job and hopefully to be recognised as being a leader in my field.”