After juggling the demands of his job as Fraser Coast Mayor with postgraduate study, Cr George Seymour has graduated from USC with a Graduate Certificate in Management.

For Cr Seymour, it was a case of practicing what he preaches about the value of higher education and continuous learning for a strong and healthy community.

“I believe it fosters an ambitious, creative and open mindset that looks to the future,” he said.

“It is important for the community and the economy that opportunities are available for people to further their education and expand their horizons, not only at an undergraduate level, but through continued professional development.”

USC’s Graduate Certificate in Management is designed to develop skills in four main areas, including organisational management and economics, to increase executive decision-making capability.

“I wanted to improve my management skills and as I am always keen to keep learning, I saw it as an opportunity to develop my skills as a leader whilst being exposed to new ideas and concepts,” Cr Seymour said.

The former solicitor and Division 10 Councillor who enrolled in the program before becoming Mayor in May last year, said he was able to apply key learnings to his role as regional leader.

“I could adapt the content to suit my requirements, and the skills I acquired have really helped in my decision-making process as well as inter-personal discussions and deliberations,” he said.

“I have really felt that the experience of studying management at USC has increased my confidence in how I lead change in my community and organisation.”

As well as his mayoral duties, Cr Seymour researches, writes and present talks about history, architecture and literature, but said it was not too difficult to add postgraduate study to his busy schedule

“It helped that I enjoyed the program,” said Cr Seymour who completed the coursework mainly online.

“I believe that learning new things and exploring new ideas should be part of our daily routine so in the evenings I really liked undertaking my USC studies.”

Cr Seymour was travelling overseas and could not attend USC’s Fraser Coast graduation ceremony held in Hervey Bay on 1 May.