Industry Officer - Kareenga Prison

Department of Justice and Community Safety; Lara; On-site; AUD 86,000 - 99,000; Full time

Job summary

Department of Justice and Community Safety in Victoria seeks a dedicated Senior Industry Officer at Marngoneet Correctional Centre / Karreenga to lead prison industry operations, supervise staff, and mentor prisoners in accredited trades. The role focuses on safety, production targets, and service delivery within a high-security environment.

You will enter data in Oracle, ensure OH&S compliance, coach team members, manage budgets, and collaborate with the Industry Supervisor and Manager to

Qualifications

• Demonstrated leadership, maturity, sound judgment and the ability to coach and motivate prisoners.
• Excellent communication, negotiation and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to work in a complex, security-focused prison industry environment.

Responsibilities

• Supervise a team to achieve operational and production targets for Marngoneet/Karreenga Industries.
• Ensure safety and security of prisoners, staff and visitors, with proper OH&S compliance.
• Work with prison industry operations including training and assessment, case management, and program knowledge.
• Deliver performance targets and pursue professional development within OH&S, quality assurance, monitoring and record-keeping systems.
• Participate in offender management practices and support new initiatives for industry training integration.
• Provide formal reports to supervisors and senior management.

Skills

Team leadership

Communication

Negotiation

Problem solving

Decision making

Education

Trade qualification in Bakery

Job description

Industry staff deliver training and employment capabilities to prisoners whilst meeting commercial and service industry production goalsOngoing, Full-Time Opportunity to work with a high-performing and passionate team in the Victorian Public Service

COG Grade 2b: $85,787 - $98,651 plus superannuation.

About the Business Unit

Marngoneet Correctional Centre / Karreenga is a medium security facility that houses a mix of sentenced and remand men and is located 6km north-west of Lara, 20km from the centre of Geelong and about 70km from Melbourne. The role of the facility is to contain men in custody safely, securely and humanely, focusing on the individual needs of the men with the aim of providing a successful transition back into the community or on their continued journey through the prison system. The facility has a strong focus on achieving positive outcomes and provides a range of engaged services. Our highly skilled workforce provides supervision and case management and are dedicated to enhancing opportunities to strengthen prisoner pathways.

The Vocational Services Team consists of the three key portfolios, education, programs, and industries. The role of the team is to prepare prisoners for release and to enhance post-release employment opportunities through prisoner employment, integrated on-the-job training, targeted educational opportunities, and personal development programs and activities.

About the Role

Senior Industry Officers have a major role to play in ensuring compliance with broader prison procedures as well as specific prison industry procedures, in particular Occupational Health and Safety issues in industry areas. Senior Industry Officers are responsible for the management and delivery of specific functions within a prisoner industry or service industry under the guidance of a Prison Industry Supervisor. The role requires leadership, maturity, sound judgment, and confidence in decision-making, with developed capabilities to coach, mentor, and motivate prisoners, along with highly developed communication, negotiation, and problem-solving skills.

At Marngoneet Correctional Centre / Karreenga, Senior Industry Officers play a significant and important role in training and assessing prisoners in relevant accredited trade skill units according to the specific work environment. Senior Industry Officers will enter data into Oracle as part of monitoring, recording, and managing daily production processes. Industry staff are also responsible for strict adherence to food safety standards in food production areas.

The Industry Officer is part a multi-disciplinary team and is responsible for training and supervising prisoners in the prisons commercial industries and service areas. The overall objective is to provide training and employment opportunities to prisoners and to meet the commercial and service industry production goals and service requirements.

Custodial duties may include conducting searches, surveillance, observing and assessing prisoner behaviour in the trade areas, and operating a variety of security and industrial equipment, collating information, and preparing reports and management of critical incidents. The Industry Officer reports to the Industry Supervisor and through to the Industry Manager for production processes and requirements.

Some of your duties will include:

• Typically supervises a team working to ensure the operational aims of the Marngoneet Correctional Centre / Karreenga Industries are achieved. These include commercial production targets and customer expectations, ordering and maintaining control of stock, materials, financial records and providing an industry model-workplace training environment.
• Effectively manage all work areas to ensure the safety and security of prisoners, staff and any visitors. This includes appropriate levels of surveillance and interaction within the facility, and monitoring staff and prisoners for compliance with all Occupational Health and Safety, and security procedures.
• Work as part of a team in all aspects of prison industry operations including prisoner training and assessment, case management, program and service knowledge and involvement, maintenance of professional boundaries and contribution to prison and prison industry production procedures.
• Deliver performance management targets and undertake professional development as required to enhance the role as part of a staff team, with emphasis on following industry requirements for OH&S, Quality Assurance, monitoring, and record keeping systems of prison Industry functional areas and recommending improvements where necessary.
• Participate in offender management practice, procedures, and the implementation of new initiatives, particularly related to the integration of training in industry.
• Actively participate in working parties and reference groups and provide advice through formal reports to supervisors and senior management.

About you

To be successful in this role, you will have:

• Ability to work as part of a team to monitor and achieve targets in a complex trade or industrial environment, including management of financial budgets, materials and suppliers' records and accounts, while maintaining work production schedules.
• Demonstrated understanding of processes and procedures in accordance with the Prison Industries practices.
• Knowledge of Lean manufacturing process.

Qualifications/requirementsTrade qualification in Bakery or demonstrated relevant work history is highly desirable.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

CHILD SAFE STATEMENT OF COMMITMENT:

The Department of Justice and Community Safety is committed to the safety and wellbeing of children and young people. We seek to prevent harm of any kind impacting children and young people and have zero tolerance for racism, child abuse and inequality. Children and young people's rights, relationships, identity, and culture must be recognised and respected, their voices heard, and their concerns acted upon. We aim to foster a culturally safe, child safe and child friendly environment for all children and young people we have contact with, deliver services to, or are impacted by our work.

If you require adjustments to the recruitment and selection process, or require an alternative format to any of the application material, please don't hesitate to get in touch with the contact person listed on this ad.