New uni course at Edith Cowan University aims to tackle FIFO toxic culture by educating workplace leaders

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New uni course at Edith Cowan University aims to tackle FIFO toxic culture by educating workplace leaders

Tuesday, 09 January 2024

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The course was created through the Mental Awareness, Respect, and Safety (MARS) program — a government and industry-funded initiative introduced in response to a damning WA parliamentary inquiry into sexual misconduct in the sector.

ECU won a bid to become the home of a MARS centre — allowing for industry, academic and government research on how to stamp out issues highlighted in the parliamentary committee’s 2022 Enough is Enough report.

MARS course coordinator Dr Esme Franken will oversee the certificate which includes a unit focused on respectful workplaces and new legislation around “psychosocial hazards”.

“We look at different responses to intervention. We will be discussing potential responses to incidents and they won’t be bandaid responses in class,” Dr Franken said.

She added the online elements of the course had been designed to be interactive with a mix of in-person and online learning.

Dr Franken said while intensive weekend sessions will be held in the middle of each unit at the uni’s CBD location, much of the course can be done online to cater for those already in the workforce.

“We’re going with a hybrid format, which we think is going to be more appealing and more manageable for students who are perhaps in FIFO work or just generally working full time,” she said.

She said a surprising lack of research into sexual misconduct across the industry, had made creating the course all the more difficult.

“There’s lots of academic research on bullying and less on sexual harassment,” she said.

“Very little has actually been researched in the mining context in particular. So, that’s where we’ll be really looking at the industry reports and marrying them with the academic literature.”

The first course will be offered only to domestic students with the view to broaden it internationally.

Dr Franken said she expected workers in human resources and occupational health and safety to be among applications.

There will also be 90 scholarships on offer, which cover 50 per cent of the $13,700 course fee under a three-year deal funded by the Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety.

Eligible students must be based in WA and currently working in the industry but don’t need to currently be working in a leadership capacity.

While the final leadership-based unit is already drawn from ECU’s Master of Business Administration course, the new “Leading Respect at Work” unit to be taught by Dr Franken is expected to be rolled out more widely in the future.

MARS Centre director Professor Tim Bentley said the course was tailored to the industry and focused on respect at work, and physical health and safety.

“The sector is still coming to grips with the issue of psychosocial risk,” he said.

“The more leaders and future leaders that go through this course, the bigger the shift will be in culture.”

Professor Tim Bentley

School of Business and Law