Trainer Profile 04: Kemp Lysle

Kemp is known throughout the office as our resident joker, goofball and I.T. expert but he is also one of our most experienced trainers. With training experience dating back to 2000 and numerous industry contacts including Chevron, Department of Commerce, Schneider Electric, Department of Health, Legal Aid, Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety and RAC to name but a few giving him a wealth of experience and knowledge to pass on to his students.
During Kemps personal time he enjoys fixing things, especially networks and any computer game that his daughter cannot beat him at, interestingly this leads directly into Kemp’s field of expertise which is IT (specifically systems and networking) and eLearning where he trains a variety of IT qualifications ranging from certificate 3s in IT up to the Diploma of IT Networking. When asked why he had chosen this field Kemp said that he had always enjoyed IT-related tasks so he decided he might as well get paid for it, showing his deep passion for the industry area he has chosen to devote his life to.

When asked what attracted Kemp to Skills Strategies International Kemp stated that the attitude towards learning not only for the students but the continuous learning that all staff undertook at SSI was like nothing he had seen at another training organization. Kemp says that the trainer that had the largest impact on him was his year 11 and 12 Chemistry teacher- because he was not only funny but was able to simplify complex topics to make them easier to understand. This training style is very similar to Kemp’s training style where he uses his sense of humour and real-world analogies to bring down the learner’s defences and relax them allowing them to learn the complex parts of IT networking easier than in the ‘can’t do’ mindset many learners take when it comes to IT-related subjects.

Being the eLearning expert here at SSI, Kemp has thrived as the use of online learning platforms have grown through the pandemic and has played a key role in the growth SSI has been able to have during a global pandemic. Kemp has introduced and trained the entire team through many of the programs we use such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom and WebEx. When addressing the move to online learning Kemp had some interesting advice to give to trainers: ‘It does not need to be difficult – but you do need to reduce the session times (about 90 minutes seems to be the “sweet spot”) – lots of variety within a session helps to keep people from falling asleep focused.’