Clarence Slockee
My attitude is that if you’re going to commit to the three years of doing the course, you might as...
I work in environmental education with the Barangaroo Delivery Authority, so I’m involved in writing and delivering their education and tourism programs. Prior to that I was the Aboriginal Education Officer at the Sydney Royal Botanical Gardens.
Why did you take up the Bachelor of Business Administration?
I was looking for something that would help me get to a higher managerial role, and the way that the course is designed, and the fact that it is a cohort group on block mode was the appealing thing for me. We can help each other and we can work full time, that’s the beautiful thing. You can do training in dribs and drabs and do short courses here and there, but at the end of this you not only get some really relevant content to take back to your job, you actually end up with a Bachelor of Business Administration.
How are you finding the degree so far?
I’m really enjoying it. Balancing work, family, travel and delivering on the course content and assignments is challenging, but that’s why the block mode is a great thing that this course has going for it – for people that are in full time employment, it makes it easier. Knuckling down to that block mode also helps me retain information as well.
How do you find the coursework?
Certainly in my role it’s been very useful, this semester in particular looking at ways of managing staff. The previous semester looking at finance and marketing helps with a lot of the reporting that you have to do in government. Last semester we put together a marketing strategy for the Tribal Warrior Association, an indigenous business here in Sydney. It relates specifically to ways we can help aboriginal businesses back in our own community.
What is the best thing about the degree so far?
It’s being able to analyse the day to day operations of the organisations you either work for currently or have worked for previously. The course content is quite relative to what you’ve experienced, so you can analyse that decision making process, or you can analyse whether managers and supervisors are doing a reasonable job I suppose!
How do you see this degree advancing your career?
Ultimately I’d like to help Aboriginal organisations. I’ve visited and lived in a lot of Aboriginal communities, and I’ve seen a lot of community organisations being guided by ethically and morally deficient individuals. A lot of the course work is around that strong, ethical decision making process, so it would be nice to do that. I think we all sort of agree on that point, whether it be this cohort or whether it be future cohorts who make their way through this process and hopefully into the Masters, is that we’ll have more Aboriginal Torres-Strait people equipped to be able to work with the community, as opposed to having non-Indigenous people in those roles, guiding community based organisations in the business sphere. I think this course in particular is well equipped to do that for a lot of people.
What would your advice be for someone who is thinking about doing this degree?
Don’t kid yourself about how much work is involved. You’ll get out exactly what you put in. My attitude is that if you’re going to commit to the three years of doing the course, you might as well fully commit and get the results that will see you move forward.
