YOUth Community program pays off for Strathpine job seeker
A young Strathpine job seeker has excelled in an internship opportunity and started her new career journey with support from MatchWorks.
Gillian pictured with YOUth Community and PR Rags team members.
Gillian, 20, was referred to the YOUth Community program by her employment consultant Stacey Elks to improve her skills and confidence levels.
YOUth Community is being delivered by MatchWorks over the next two years in Victorian, South Australian and Queensland locations under the Australian Government’s Empowering YOUth initiative.
Empowering YOUth supports new and innovative approaches to help long-term unemployed young people aged 15 to 24 years to improve their skills and move toward sustainable employment.
YOUth Community Mentor Selena Vitale said Gillian joined the program with her friend and flatmate Ruby, who has also started to turn her life around since joining the program.
“Gillian has had a number of setbacks when searching for a job, partly due to her facial piercings and visible tattoos unfortunately being a barrier for her. She was previously working casual hours at a local tavern but not gaining enough hours every week. Gillian wanted to get into childcare and needed consistent hours to allow her to study,” Selena said.
“MatchWorks marketer Jim Torpey met with Gillian and set up an interview with PR Cleaning Rags owner Pratima and manager Ray. PR Cleaning Rags is a family-owned business operating in Clontarf, supplying quality cleaning supplies to companies across Australia.
“Pratima and Ray were after someone who was confident talking with customers over the phone and following up on orders placed. They met with Gillian and gave her a 30-minute trial, which they were impressed with and offered her an internship opportunity in December.”
Pratima and Ray were so happy with Gillian’s performance and work ethics during the internship that she was offered full-time employment as a Sales and Customer Assistant Officer and commenced on January 8. Gillian said she is excited about the opportunity.
“I really enjoyed and learnt valuable hand-on skills during the internship. I have also been able to enrol in a childcare course while working at PR Cleaning Rags, so I couldn’t be happier.”