Learn Local - GEST Video

Having been born and bred here, I know how hard it is to get work.

We've found three or four years ago

call centres were definitely developing in this area.

It's a skill shortage that we didn't realise that was there,

so we needed to address that.

Since the closure of the Hazelwood power station in 2017,

there have been a number of people without employment

and there are many people that are,

they might be in their mid-thirties

and they've never seen family around them work.

When one of my colleagues saw in the local paper,

she just rang them up out of the blue and said, "We've got a contact centre.

Do you want us to be involved?

Like we would love to help you with that programme.."

It ended up being a GEST who delivered the programme.

We've worked with GEST ever since then.

We didn't envision the course,

but through conversations we felt that was the best way to go about it.

So what were you looking for in staff members?

What is it that you've noticed when you interview?

What is the gap that needs to be filled?

So we work through that together.

So that curriculum is written with them.

And that's why the courses so good.

So there's resume writing and there's key selection criteria

and there's interview techniques.

Because it's pre accredited, you can really draw out conversations.

So it's about life experience.

So we get a lot of the students to talk about their own experience

in adapting that to what you would do if you were working.

Just prepare the person as best as possible to start work.

There's been a lot of community involvement

wound to the fabric of Aussie Broadband.

Everybody benefits, including us,

but we're part of this local community as well.

And we see that there's a huge need for people to gain great employment.

I got a call about GEST trying to start a programme with Aussie Broadband.

I've been out of work for ten years at this point.

I had become isolated and shut in.

I have a history with ADHD, bipolar disorder,

and these things I've masked for ages and I've always

seen them as a deficit in my ability.

And I didn't feel valuable.

We really needed the support to help people understand what's involved

what's involved with the career.

As a result of doing that GEST course, we got five out of ten

people who completed the course, came to work at Aussie Broadband.

Some of them are still here today.

We've adapted it each time,

from the learnings of each course and we always refer back to the employer.

What have you got to add?

So because we've grown with the employers.

So I'd always wanted to do this job, but I couldn't find a way in.

And so this programme came up.

I took a leap of faith on this and I knew I had nothing to lose.

When it started.,

it was in the training room at Aussie Broadband, and I'm by myself

in this training room and I was looking on to this customer service floor.

And the energy is just incredibly strong.

That right there was the first thing that really set a fire in.

GEST really, I think, made an impact in their lives,

and got them ready for that next phase.

Anybody and everybody that works here, has a passion for their community to grow.

So often if I go to meetings I will say "I live here, so it's important."

So what I give, I want to see it grow.

We had 160 staff then, and we've now got just over a thousand.

So it's a huge difference in less than four years.

And the reality is that when you put one person through a course

and they get a job, the impact of that spreads.

I often say it's very hard not to be biased because Aussie,

if they weren't there in that start, we wouldn't have what we've got.

That's the truth.

The more that we have programmes like this

in regional areas, the more that we build people's capacity.

I'm overwhelmed still.

I really can not begin to explain what this programme has done for me.

The programme, it allows an opportunity to reach out to people

that's like me, invisible, and go, "Hey, no, you know what?

"You're quite valuable and we love you."