Newslines Radio: Working for their future

February 2012 – Program four

Broadcast date:	20–26 February, 2012
Duration:	12 minutes
Presenter:	Nathan Ramsay
Content:	Indigenous apprentices talk about career pathways.
Talent:	Joshua Toomey, electrical mechanic, NSW Sharon Sleep, apprentice butcher, SA Dillon McDonough, apprentice gardener, ACT William Beale, Habitat Personnel, ACT.
Music:	Busby Marou, Underlying Message Stiff Gins, Close Your Eyes

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PRESENTER: Hi, I’m Nathan Ramsay and you’re listening to Newslines Radio, a weekly program produced by the Australian Government on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues.

Choosing a career path can be a difficult decision. But how does getting paid real money while learning a trade sound?

Today we’re talking to some inspiring young people who are working hard to make a future for themselves by undertaking apprenticeships.

Newslines’ Danika Nayna reports.

[MUSIC: Busby Marou]

NAYNA: In Australia, an apprenticeship can give you the skills and experience you need to get a job in just about any field. You’re paid to train on the job and you finish with a qualification as a skilled worker.

For Joshua Toomey from Hamlyn Terrace in New South Wales, who was NAIDOC’s 2011 Apprentice of the Year, undertaking and finishing his Certificate Three as an electrician was a learning experience that gave him a lot more than a piece of paper.

He spoke to me about his personal journey because he wants everyone who thinks they’re stuck without a career to know that you can do anything with a bit of vision and motivation.

TOOMEY: Through the help of people who helped me and my partner we finished. Very emotional time for me. I remember them giving me my trade certificate and I was sitting there and usually I’m not lost for words and they handed it to me and I just started thinking how hard I worked for it and what I went through and it was very emotional and it was a really nice feeling.

So now I’m paid top dollar. I could probably count my family members on one hand who has a trade. I love my job. I learn a lot. It’s hands on. Sometimes I could be working up a pole and a million dollar view, sea breeze in my hair, getting paid for it. They’re silly these fellas you know, paying me to do something I love.

And there are the challenges, it’s not all roses. There’s the theory side of it and mathematical side but all that stuff is achievable with the right help. I just had to take the first step and believe in myself and everyone else followed, you know.

NAYNA: Joshua joined a pre-apprenticeship program to help him get the literacy and numeracy skills he needed to get into his apprenticeship.

He says before he started out on this path, he had thought he wouldn’t amount to much.

But he’s typical of many apprentices who are proud to have overcome negativity and a lack confidence.

TOOMEY: I wasn’t always this confident. When I first started out I had a lot of brick walls that limited what I thought I could do and a lot of people helped cement them in, you know.

But I suppose I’ve come to a point in my life where I was just a bit fed up with where I was and what I was doing and I made a decision to change and want better for myself.

It’s a funny thing this life I suppose. You only get out what you put in and in the first couple of years I wasn’t putting a lot in and I wasn’t getting a lot out.

And I was always blaming other people and excuses and looking at other people and not being responsible for my own actions.

NAYNA: It’s really hard to believe with you sitting here talking now that anybody would ever tell you that you were not a smart person.

TOOMEY: I just took it on board what they were saying and started telling myself and I believed it and knew those walls, they were pretty high up. There wasn’t any way out or exit sign, if you know what I mean. I was comfortable where I was and what I was doing.

NAYNA: You made the conscious decision that that wasn’t OK?

TOOMEY: Yeah. I just came to a point in my life where I didn’t have to be the smartest person in the world to know that the way I was living and what I was doing wasn’t healthy and I suppose you’d call it rock bottom. I was lonely, scared, confused.

My father played a big role in my life. I went to him for help and he threw me a lifeline and I saw what he had and where he’d come from to where he is today and that was a big motivation.

I could see it and he’d give me hope – that magical word hope. And ever since then I’ve never forgotten the past. But I don’t beat myself up over it and I look at it to remind me if I ever get complacent and think that I’ve got this life caper sewed up that that could be my future.  So yeah!

PRESENTER: You’re listening to Newslines Radio and today we’re taking a look at how taking on an apprenticeship has changed lives.

In Australia apprenticeships are available to anyone of working age and do not require any entry qualifications. You can be a school-leaver, re-entering the workforce or simply wishing to change careers.

[MUSIC: Stiff Gins]

PRESENTER: Sharon Sleep from South Australia was beginning to think that she would either never have a job or that she would end up in a career that she was unhappy with.

But after leaving school early and struggling to find a job, she took on pre-employment training and then a job as an apprentice butcher.

She told Newslines’ Danika Nayna she now loves her job.

SLEEP: My mum was living in Sydney so at the end of Year 10 I moved to Sydney to be with my mum and I went to school down there and because I didn’t have all my friends it was completely different to living in the country. I quit school. So I didn’t do Year 11. I didn’t finish school.

I was unemployed. I was looking for work so I was always going in for interviews and putting in applications, going to Mission Australia appointments and all that sort of stuff and getting the same answer every time. “Oh sorry you’re not quite what we’re looking for.” Or, “Sorry, you’re underqualified.” All those same sorts of answers. And to be honest it really puts a dampener on trying to find a job and I was ready to quit. I was just going, “Yep, whatever.” But I’m glad the course came up. It’s given me a better outlook.

NAYNA: What made you decide to do the pre-employment program?

SLEEP: When I was at school I actually wanted to be a teacher and that was my ambition, to be a teacher. But looking for a job in Adelaide and going through the paper and all I could see was jobs for butchers. Everyone wanted a butcher and I thought well maybe I’m going in the wrong direction and thought, ‘Ah well let’s give it a go,’ and went to Mission Australia for one of my appointments and said about it and they said, “We’re offering this program,” and they told me about it and I thought well, if I don’t take this opportunity now I could be unemployed for another two years, which I didn’t want. I wanted to get my life back on track. So I just took the opportunity with both hands and here I am today. I couldn’t be happier.

If anyone asks me whether they should do it or not, if they were umming or aahing I’d just be, “No, do it man because it would change your life definitely.”  It’s really not where I thought I would be but it has opened a lot of doors for me. It’s great.

PRESENTER: Sharon has three years on her apprenticeship with Woolworths and is working hard towards her goal of getting qualified. She’s already the head safety officer for her team and last year was nominated as apprentice of the year in her workplace.

Sharon Sleep and Joshua Toomey both undertook pre-employment programs to help them get the basic skills they needed to do an apprenticeship.

There are also lots of people and organisations who help to recruit and support Indigenous apprentices.

Kamilaroi man William Beale is one of them. He works in Canberra with the employment agency Habitat Personnel.

He helps Indigenous trainees and apprentices get work – people like Dillon McDonough, for example, who’s an apprentice gardener at the Governor General’s residence in Canberra.

BEALE: So we help with from recruitment right through to retention. We helped them recruit young Dillon and now we’re here doing our mentoring, making sure he’s okay at home, making sure all the work and the lifestyle at work is going well. We talk to the immediate supervisors and if there’s anything that arises we do mediation and stuff like that.

As well as that we do some cross-cultural training for the agency and for the staff around so they’re culturally aware and are prepared for an Indigenous staff to come and work with them.

PRESENTER: Young Dillon McDonough is flourishing as an apprentice in the Governor General’s gardens.  

MCDONOUGH: After I left down home to come up I went and saw William Beale and he was talking to me about what I wanted to do. I said, “I like being outside.” So he looked for a job for me and ended up getting me here. It’s been pretty good since.

Just maintaining the gardens, so weeding, spraying, trimming and just cleaning up, seeing the Governor General walking around and talking to her.

Just all the people that actually come and getting compliments off the other workers about the gardens as well is pretty good to hear.

PRESENTER: All the apprentices we’ve spoken to today came from a point where they weren’t sure what they would be doing with their future. Now, with the right help and the willingness to give it a go, they’re on the track to fulfilling careers.

Joshua Toomey has this advice.

TOOMEY: My life today is a direct result of the action I put in. That magic word “action”. I suppose the world is your oyster. You’re limited to what you think you can do. That’s how I feel.

PRESENTER: The Australian Government is committed to increasing employment opportunities for Indigenous people and an apprenticeship could be a great start to your career.

Whether you’re looking for a pre-apprenticeship or help with getting into a trade, you can visit our website indigenous.gov.au for more information.

You can also read our magazine there, friend us on Facebook or follow us on twitter.

I’m Nathan Ramsay, and thanks for listening to Newslines Radio.

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