"What do you want to be when you want to grow up?" is a question you probably heard a lot as you were growing up. You might have said you wanted to be an astronaut, a vet or firefighter. 

But for some of the children at the Goodstart Early Learning Centre in Albany Creek, some said they wanted to work in our industry after Ventia Project Manager Nicole Marshall stopped by to talk about safety. 

Nicole is a regular visitor to the centre, overseeing Ventia's Project Control Group meetings and site inspections as part of a range of centre improvement upgrade projects around Australia. 

The upgrades meant that playgrounds have been closed and isolated from their centres, but the renovations have been watched over by several young and curious eyes.  

"We have Bob the Builder at our kindy"  

While the children at Goodstart eagerly watch through the windows as the Ventia team and big machinery are at work on the playground, the centre organised some high-vis shirts and hard hats for the children to dress up and get creative.  

With the children's new interest in the work happening outside, Centre Assistant Director Justine Logan asked Nicole if she could show the children some of the safety equipment and procedures Ventia follows and use the activity as a platform to deliver a message to the children on Safety - a core value for both Goodstart and Ventia.  

^{Project Manager Nicole Marshall teaches kids about on-site safety}

"So things don't hurt our head" 

Nicole joined the centre to show the children how to correctly wear their personal protective equipment like hard hats, eye and ear protection and high-vis shirts while they followed along. They also enjoyed learning how Nicole's safety boots protect her feet by taking turns standing on them. Nicole then explained why we wear the equipment, some of the daily safety activities the contractors do, and the importance of sun protection and staying hydrated.  

The children were then inducted as honorary safety inspectors and were excited to help Nicole in her routine safety checks along the construction site fencing. The new inspectors were quick to find a gap under the fence where the weighted base had moved and worked together to move it back to the correct position.  

^{Learning all about PPE}

"Children are central to everything we do"  

Goodstart Early Learning is Australia's largest provider of early learning and care and is Australia's largest non-government provider of preschool and kindergarten programs. They operate over 660 centres nationwide and provide education and care to more than 60,000 children. You can learn more about Goodstart Early Learning here. 

"Every time I visit the centre, I pop in to say hi to my new site inspectors which is one of the highlights of my day."  says Ventia Senior Project Manager Ellis Wendt. 

The Ventia Queensland PWS team is very proud of the work we have been able to undertake with Goodstart over the years, and remain committed to our approach to safety to help us achieve high quality outcomes both on site and with the people we work with.