A group of 11 young job seekers have recently graduated from Youth Jobs PaTH Employability Skills Training (EST), with the trainer Peter Mullen saying that it was the most employment-focused group he has had in all his years of training.
Mr Mullen, Trainer & Assessor for ARC Group delivered the 12-day course in Traralgon VIC during August in which participants developed skills in advanced job searching techniques, career development, industry awareness, and more.
Youth Jobs PaTH EST is an Australian Government initiative designed to help young job seekers become job ready through pre-employment training. Mr Mullen said that delivering training to unemployed youth cohorts can often present a great variety of skill levels, however the group came open and ready to learn.
“In almost 11 years of delivering training to job seekers I have not had a complete group like this that was as employment focused,”
“The learners where very pro-active in what they expected and worked so very well towards getting the best out of our 12 days together.” Mr Mullen said.
Participants in this course completed a number of group tasks to build their communication skills and confidence, including the cup maze (as shown in the photos) where teams of two must navigate each other backwards and forwards using only hand signals. Job seekers were also treated to a visit from a real employer to assist them to develop an understanding of employer expectations.
“A lot of sharing was done by them when we did group activities, and they responded exceedingly well to an employer brief – one job seeker was asked to leave a resume!”
Participants also took to some mystery shopping as an exercise to learn more about the retail environment.
Mr Mullen said that engagement among the group was high, and it was excellent to see that the participants not only walked away with new skills but also new friendships.
“It is always great to see when diverse groups build strong trust and friendships during training and that was the case with this group of learners.”
“It became common for them to hang out after training for coffee.”
The group decided to have a ‘Onsie’ Day with everyone donating a gold coin to the Salvos.
Mr Mullen said that he was particularly impressed with the drive of one job seeker who called him recently to go through some interview strategies for an imminent employment interview.
“It was really pleasing to take a call from him later that day to share how he had gotten on, and again later that day when he was offered and accepted employment.”
“Without doubt the best group of learners with an excellent focus of their employment.”
“As a trainer it was a real privilege to be allowed to help these guys on their employment journey.”
8 out of the 11 participants have now found either full-time or part-time employment.
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