LOCAL community groups and schools have shared in a bonanza of more than $1.5 million, following the winding up of Portland WorkSkills.

The organisation, which has closed down after 33 years running accredited training and adult education in the community, held a farewell dinner at the Portland Golf Club on Thursday night.

About 70 people attended, including board members, former staff (several from out of the city and as far afield as Geelong) and representatives from various community organisations.

The chief purpose was to distribute the funds held by WorkSkills.

Its board decided last year to wind it down in an orderly fashion after deciding it could not get bigger (as the only small provider between Melbourne and the South Australian border) to survive in the competitive world of workplace training – this also enabled it to distribute the funds it had.

Much of its former role has now been taken up by WDEA and Kyeema Support Services (see story on the latter on Page 2), but Thursday night’s dinner was also a chance to reflect on the tireless work of many WorkSkills staff over the years, especially executive officer Bernard Wallace and training manager Kathy Taylor.

However, the distribution of funds was the major event of the night, and it was split into two categories.

The first was the major donations of several hundred thousand dollars each – these four grants accounted for 90 per cent of the funds and went to Kyeema, Seaview House, Portland Cable Trams and the Friends of the Great South West Walk.

Mr Wallace said these were chosen on two grounds – those organisations that supported people with a disability and aged care, the two groups that were WorkSkills’ training focus, and community-based organisations that contributed to economic development by providing tourism experiences, with WorkSkills well known for its involvement in tours and tour guiding over the years.

“The donations are unconditional,” Mr Wallace said.

“The organisations know best what they need to do to strengthen themselves and best benefit the community.

“The board of management hoped greatly that the donations would have great impact and be game-changers.”

And that’s exactly what the four organisations said they would do with the money.

Seaview House manager Myra Bourke said it would use the funds to try to buy the building from Portland District Health, from which it has leased it since 2013 – after starting with five residents, it now averaged about 50.

“We don’t get any government funding or anything and we do struggle sometimes for any maintenance and things,” she said.

“The lease from the hospital is quite dear.

“It would be a very fitting reward for WorkSkills if we were able to do that (buy the building).”

Like most of the other organisations on the night Ms Bourke paid tribute to WorkSkills for training its staff.

“WorkSkills always listened to what we needed in the training and they were able to deliver that,” she said.

Kyeema chief executive Julie Amor said the organisation’s donation would be used on a combination of things.

“We’ve taken over the Portland Neighbourhood House program and we have many other changes afoot,” she said.

“Part of our allocation is (for) some offices in Pioneer Plaza and we always need vehicles.

“We’ll spend the money very, very wisely, we assure you.

“So many of our participants have done the wonderful programs offered and half of our staff were trained at WorkSkills.”

Portland Cable Trams general manager Joy Hocken was emotional when accepting the donation.

“This just means so much to us,” she said.

“It’s fantastic.

“Both Bernard and Portland WorkSkills were an integral part of the project, organising training for the volunteers enabling them to meet the accreditation requirements of the Department of Transport.

“We have many projects in the pipeline which we have not been able to fulfil due to a lack of funding.

“This donation will enable the implementation of those projects.”

They included the restoration of tram sets, extensions to the workshop and building a new website.

Friends of the Great South West Walk president Jen Johns said “we have many, many plans which we can make good use of” with its donation.

The group was rapidly outgrowing its workshop site behind the Portland Men’s Shed on Hedditch St and also needed to attract more volunteers.

Secretary Phyll Harvey said volunteers contributed the equivalent hours of four-and-a-half full-time employees on the 250km track last year.

After the major donations it was time for the “minor” ones, of several thousand dollars each.

The organisations were chosen by each of the board members.

Deputy chairwoman Carmen Scott chose to split hers between Portland Secondary College (will use the donation to support students, particularly indigenous ones, who need financial assistance or who have a disability) and All Saints Parish School (will reinstate its fresh fruit program which had stopped due to a lack of funding).

Jan Chilman chose Portland Bay School, which will use the money to further develop its shed which will be turned into an area to teach manual handling and mechanical work, as well as an art room, to help make students workplace ready.

Margaret Herbertson and Heather Mutch chose Kyeema.

Mr Wallace fittingly chose Portland Family History Group, which has yet to decide how it will spend the money.

Treasurer Trevor Hornby chose Portland Community Garden, which will expand its urban farm and install woodwork and metalwork training facilities in two new bays that have been built.

Chairman Michael Hunter chose Coast Guard Portland, which is looking at various ways of supporting people out on the water.

Tony Fleming chose the Portland RSL sub-branch, which will use its money to hire a part-time co-ordinator to ensure the Anzac Day floral tributes, including the flower growing and display, can continue to be enjoyed for years to come.

Mr Wallace and Ms Taylor reflected on the night afterwards – among other highlights were a speech by Dayle King, the first manager of what was then the SkillShare program set up by the federal government.

“I’m sort of delighted to have such a meaningful end to this,” said Mr Wallace, Mr King’s successor and who ran WorkSkills for 30 years.

“The fact that we also didn’t linger on past our use-by date and in the end there’s not going to be a huge amount of loss of service delivery and choice.

“That’s a very neat and tidy end to things. Things like this don’t normally happen, normally organisations fail over six months to three years, there’s issues at the end and the money gets spent.”

Ms Taylor thanked the “amazing” board, most of who have served for many years (Mr Hunter and Ms Scott for 28 years each, the former the chairman for the past 15 years) and 116 years in total for the seven of them.

“This has brought great stability to Portland WorkSkills,” she said.