About Us

Ian Nicolson

Executive Officer

Ian has a broad range of experiences across industry, education and training, government and not-for-profit organisations. His industry experience ranges from furniture and cabinet making, timber and hardware to tourism and transport. During his time as Operations Manager with the Timber Merchants Association, Ian worked closely with the wholesale timber and retail hardware sectors, regularly representing the industry as a proxy director on the WRAPS Industry Training Board.

Originally a teacher of commerce and information technology in the technical system, Ian then moved into industrial relations as Gippsland Organiser with the Australian Education Union. During this time he represented the union movement as President of the Gippsland Trades and Labour Council and as a director of Gippsland Development. His involvements eventually lead to an appointment as the inaugural Gippsland Manager for the Commonwealth Department of Housing and Regional Development.

Ian's initial experience with Industry Training Boards came with the Executive Officer position with the Victorian Light Manufacturing and Forests Industry Training Board, which was eventually restructured as Furnishing Training Victoria. Ian's background in economic development has enabled him to undertake recent assignments in the tourism and transport industries, working on industry development issues including training, addressing skills shortages and promoting careers.

Linda Baron

Program Manager

Linda has been working in education, and specifically career education and development for over 20 years. Most recently she worked for secondary school career and VET coordinators, as the Executive Officer of their professional association, the Career Education Association of Victoria. In that role she ran 17 CEAV conferences around Victoria, in 10 years. The biennial conferences featured extensive industry input via panels, site tours and workshops. The conferences also involved strong content from regional TAFE Institutes and universities. She edited the quarterly journal, the website, and managed a series of specialist projects. Working on behalf of DEST (now DEEWR) she oversaw the Australian customization of the Canadian careers resource, The Real Game series, and promoted World Skills participation to the VET in schools community for the state government.

Prior to the CEAV, Linda worked as the Schools Liaison Officer for Swinburne University of Technology, promoting courses and employment opportunities for both the TAFE and higher education sectors. This gave her insight into training pathways, employment environments across the state and strong links to the school to work sector. She began her career in specialist film and press libraries, moving into secondary media and English teaching before discovering the career education world. She looks forward to bringing her knowledge of the education and training sectors, career information, publications and event management experience to the VFITB role.

Tracey Lane

Finance Officer

Previously Management Accountant for the Federal Magistrates Court of Australia, Tracey has extensive finance and administration experience within a diverse mix of industries including manufacturing, labour hire and the building sector. Working with SSV 3 days a week, Tracey is planning on returning back to complete her studies in Finance.

Julian Wearne

IT Administrator

Julian moved to Melbourne from Bendigo in early 2005 after completing his schooling in Bendigo. Before starting at SSV Julian had worked in a wide range of roles varying from administration to bar work. Julian has always been interested in IT and built his first computer with his hard earned savings at the age of just 15. He also studied CISCO Networking during VCE. Julian completed a Certificate IV in Information Technology as part of his training through SSV.

Krystle Williams

Office Administrator

Krystle studied at the University of Ballarat completing a Bachelor of Business majoring in Tourism. Prior to her degree, Krystle completed a Traineeship whereby she obtained a Certificate III in Business. During her studies, Krystle also worked at the University of Ballarat in a number of roles including Personal Assistant and Administration.