TRAVIS Court sees the car accident in which he fractured his spine as both a "blessing and a curse".
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Mr Court, 43, had been a butcher for 25 years and was unable to return to the position due to his injury.
"Having been in the job for so long it was obviously quite scary not being able to return to that work, it was the only job I'd ever known," he said.
"But at the same time it was probably time for a change. The silver lining on the cloud is that it did force me into having to think about where I was going to go from there forwards, thinking about a new career and all that kind of stuff."
Mr Court of Gwandalan decided to upskill and studied this year for a Certificate IV in Work Health and Safety at TAFE NSW Newcastle campus.
He secured a job two months ago as a workers compensation case manager at EML Insurance. "I'm loving it," he said. "It's great and I'm really enjoying it."
TAFE NSW said in a statement there were 34,000 occupational and environmental health professionals in 2020 and the Australian Government Job Outlook predicted this number would grow to 40,900 by 2025.
"The critical role of WHS workers has moved to the forefront for many organisations in the wake of COVID-19, with daily reminders of the importance of being safe," it said.
Coupled with recently introduced stronger workplace safety laws in NSW, it said this had created a strong demand for skilled employees.
Mr Court was injured in a car accident in Lake Munmorah on July 30, 2019. He said he had stopped at a red light when a driver hit him from behind at 80 kilometres an hour. He started physiotherapy before being sent for further scans, where he was found to have a fractured T7 vertebrae. He had spinal fusion surgery in December 2019.
"I was working with a rehabilitation provider for a period of time and they were helping me think about different jobs and where I could possibly go moving forward and recommended some possible retraining," he said.
"I was going through the TAFE website and I just kept coming back to the work health and safety course."
Mr Court said there had been a focus on WHS at the supermarkets where he worked as a butcher.
"Just the idea of being able to help people who are in a similar situation to myself, being able to do something about workplace safety, even though my injury wasn't in the workplace, it was something that just resonated with me," he said.
He urged people considering a career change to "take the chance". "You don't know if you don't try," he said.
"I'd like to think I'm pretty good proof you can change if you want to, it does not have to be a tragic situation that makes it happen, it doesn't have to be an accident or anything like that. Take the chance, because it's worth it."
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