Celebration time for Perth VTEC graduates

It was a proud moment for Noongar woman Lorraine Oldridge when she graduated alongside 17 other atWork Australia VTEC participants in Perth earlier this month.

Having successfully completed a Certificate II in Hospitality and 10 weeks on-the-job training, Lorraine said she was looking forward to starting her fulltime employment as a service attendant with the Sodexo Remote Sites team.

“I’m nearly 60 and I never thought I’d get a job,” she said.

“But here I am and it’s fantastic.”

The service attendant role covers a range of duties, including domestic cleaner, kitchen hand, dining room attendant, utility worker, industrial cleaner and bar person.

“The work is hard, but we don’t mind a bit of hard work,” Lorriane said.

Vocational Training and Employment Centres (VTECs) are an Australian Government initiative based on the Generation One employment model.

The atWork Australia VTEC was one of the first in Western Australia. It is contracted to provide guaranteed jobs for up to 230 Indigenous job seekers in a range of industries including construction, retail, hospitality and property maintenance.

The VTEC graduates all had jobs guaranteed for them by Sodexo before they started training.

Sodexo staff worked closely with training organisation Polytechnic West to customise their Certificate II in Hospitality, particularly the on-site training components, to ensure the participants were prepared specifically for the jobs they would be going into.

Support and training is tailored to individual participant needs.

Lorraine, for example, needed to improve her physical fitness before she was ready to work in a remote location. Her job is usually a two weeks on, one week off, fly-in, fly-out position, but for the first month Lorriane will work a one week on, one week off roster to ease into the role.

VTEC staff also provide ongoing support to the participants in the early stages of their employment, to give them the best chance of continuing in their jobs long-term.