At our Maryborough social enterprise, our team have been supporting students on work experience for over 10 years. Employment Coach, Jessica Dullaway says,
Some of our current employees who have been here for over 10 years now, came from first doing work experience.
The students usually come in groups of 3-8, depending on interest, from local schools, such as Aldridge SHS, Maryborough Special School. The most recent group of students have been from Hervey Bay Special School.
This give the students a sense of pride while achieving employment goals and hopefully a pathway to open employment in their future.
When the students are on site, it’s the perfect opportunity to provide them, their education facilities, and their parents, with a sense of security in knowing that the students with disability and/or barriers to employment have the opportunity to build on a range of skills in a structured and supported environment. Jessica says,
The social enterprise at Maryborough is a timber production site, with main tasks being manufacturing stakes and pegs, as well as servicing the Maryborough and Hervey Bay areas for document destruction services. This means that students have had the opportunity to gain practical skills such as; stacking and strapping stakes and pegs, operating automatic pencil pointing machines, painting stakes and pegs, operating docking machines and sorting and shredding documents.
As well as learning these practical skills, students have also had essential training, which is appropriate for any workplace.
This training includes:
- Workplace, Health and Safety
- Punctuality
- Personal grooming and presentation
- Wearing Personal Protective Equipment
- Flexibility and adaptability
- Working effectively with others and communication
- Professionalism
All of our employees enjoy having students on sire and are always welcoming. Jessica says,
They take so much pride in what they do which really shows when they role model their employment skills and assist in the student’s learning on the job.
Employees at the site provide the training and opportunities for the student, just as they would for our other employees.
Last month, our employees partnered up with students for a team building activity, where teams of 6-7 people participated in the Marshmallow Challenge!
Groups have to follow instructions and work together using their communication, leadership and emotional regulation skills, to build the tallest structure out of items. They are given dry pasta, string, sticky tape, and a marshmallow which had to be placed at the top. Jessica said,
Each person learnt new strengths and weaknesses about themselves during this activity and enjoyed debriefing and sharing feedback afterwards.
Coming from a background of Youth Work in the homelessness sector, Jessica said
Having the ability to build these positive relationships with the local schools and their students to provide them with amazing opportunities is a massive win! Then to be able to bring our current employees together with the students and watch THEM flourish by being the leaders in guiding the students too, really makes your day in seeing their growth as well.
Big thanks to Jessica and #TeamPossible at Maryborough for guiding the next generation to success in the workforce.
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