IB Woman
Issue No. 13 - October/November 2003
Maximising Group Training
Janice Paget
Janice Paget is the Chief Executive Office of The Maxima Group, a not—for—profit company with over 130 direct employees and a payroll of 1,000. For a woman who started her career training as a hairdresser because she thought it was glamorous, Janice’s career path from the early 1960s to today has taken some interesting turns.
After five years in the beauty industry, Janice turned her attention to marketing and worked for a London—based producer of continental meats. The position included negotiating counter space throughout many of the UK’s new supermarkets and hypermarkets.
Arriving in Australia from England in 1971, Janice worked in the offices of several companies mainly in payroll and accounting positions. In 1974 she moved to a Holden dealership, starting in payroll before becoming the personal assistant to the managing director – a position that included personnel management.
In 1985, having worked for the same employer for 11 years, Janice pursued full—time study in accounting. She returned to part—time employment in 1987 working for The South Australian Local Government Group Apprenticeship Scheme (SALGGAS) as its accountant. Within three months, SALGGAS’ manager resigned and Janice was offered the position. Seeing a great challenge, she accepted.
Despite growing the organisation and employing nearly 90 apprentices, in 1989 Janice was advised that the recurrent Government funding would be phased out by 1994. “I knew that if the organisation was to survive we would have to become self—sufficient," she says. She saw an opportunity to provide councils in the Adelaide Metro area with blue—collar temporary staff. Having all the recruitment processes in place, Tempskill was developed as an extension of the apprenticeship program.
By simultaneously marketing both the apprenticeship/trainee program and the temporary placement agency to the same clients, Janice was able to keep...
