EDUCATION ADVENTURE

Q You have a history of bringing together your love of sport into your education profession? Why is that?

A When I worked at Middlesborough College, me and another lad set up the Middlesborough College soccer academy. The whole concept of that was to draw in boys and girls who were released by the professional clubs in our area. Some of them had been at the club for 10 years and they’re finding out they haven’t got a place in the club’s academy. Those players didn’t have anywhere to go. So we set up the college academy to provide a pathway for those players. To qualify for the program they had to be enrolled in fulltime education.

Q How did it bring you to Cairns?

A The whole idea of coming out here was to try different culture and live in different communities. So I came to Cairns in 2008 and I’ve been with the TAFE since then but in 2012 I got an amazing opportunity to go out as general manager to an indigenous training organisation out in Camooweal, called Myuma. What Myuma do is it’s a camp, a residential training organisation and they take in indigenous trainees from throughout Cape York, Mount Isa, Mornington Island area. I just had the most amazing learning experience you would ever hope to have surrounded with the traditional owners of the camp, to support the organisation. It was probably the happy two years of my professional career. I came back in 2014.