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A successful transition to work
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For 16 years, Elena Meale had stayed at home to look after her four children. When her youngest child had begun high school, Elena decided that she wanted to return to the workforce. However, Elena felt that she had no skills, despite having worked in the school’s tuck shop, being on school committees and managing all of her family’s activities.
Elena heard about a teacher’s aide course through Marsden State High School’s The Coffee Club, a parents’ support and self-help group that was started by the school’s principal Don Whitehouse. The course received funding through the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations’ Transition to Work programme, which helps job seekers who are 50 years or over and who have been out of the workforce for two or more years to enter or return to the workforce.
The teacher’s aide course enabled Elena to work with students at the school and to do some administrative tasks. The programme also paid for Elena to complete a computer course to update her skills.
Elena was soon working on a part-time basis for Marsden State High School and for Career Keys, a non-profit organisation that provides community-based training and transition support to parents, young people and socially disadvantaged groups to assist them with gaining employment. In 2005, Elena became a full-time employee at Career Keys.
Now that Elena has been able to return to the workforce, she says that she feels much better about herself. “I love my job and it is so nice to have that zing back again.” Having overcome the obstacle of being so long out of the workforce, Elena is now looking to the her future. “Quite often homemakers are not valued, but my employer gave me a chance and I took it,” she said. “The next step is to take on some more study to improve my career opportunities.”
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