The challenge
City of Greater Geelong engaged CAL Corporate Solutions to deliver MARATE Skills training across their sports and aquatic centre network — a workforce of approximately 500 team members spanning five distinct staff cohorts. The program targeted a predominantly young and casualised workforce with varying levels of experience managing complex behaviours, including anti-social behaviour, verbal aggression, and physical confrontations in high-pressure public environments.
Each cohort faced unique challenges: lifeguards dealing with groups displaying anti-social behaviour and gender-based aggression; Learn to Swim instructors managing physical risk from students and confrontational parents; reception staff handling verbally abusive patrons over payments and membership disputes; and gym instructors navigating patron conflicts and intimidation on the floor.
