Minister Tierney made a special visit to the state's Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority operational and training base in Mount Helen on Tuesday after the organisation was named large employer of the year in the Victorian Training Awards.

The award recognised ESTA's training programs to ensure staff are equipped with skills and resilience in high-pressure situations with often the state's most vulnerable people.

Minister Tierney was particularly impressed with the close interactions and support between ESTA's operational feedback and training arms to ensure efficient, continual improvements to best help the community.

"I wanted to see first-hand exactly what they do, often it's behind closed doors where someone rings triple-zero but you don't actually know what happens after...From what I've seen today from training and operations room, we're in good hands," Minister Tierney said.

"ESTA receives up to 7000 calls a day, that's like one call every 12 seconds so you need to have a highly skilled workforce."

ESTA runs a 24-hour emergency call-taking and dispatch service for police, fire, ambulance and State Emergency Service for Victoria from three bases, Ballarat World Trade Centre and Burwood East.

The standard training period for call-takers is six months with staff able to work independently from about 10 weeks in, specialising in one service. It can take a further 12 months to become a dispatcher.

Other states in Australia and New Zealand have separate operational centres for calls to each emergency service.

ESTA chief executive officer Marty Smyth said being under one roof and with uniform training helped improve operational efficiency.

Mr Smyth said it took a special type of person to handle the calls coming in via the triple-zero hotline.

"Mental health is a really important (training) topic for us. The very nature of the calls to triple-zero people are at an elevated level of anxiety when they ring and the type of calls our people take can be quite distressing," Mr Smyth said.

"So, mental health and removing the stigma and supporting our people with dignity and respect, particularly is important for us"

Have you signed up to The Courier's variety of news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in Ballarat.