SVA has been honoured with the Founding Partner Award at the inaugural CareerTrackers Gala Dinner in Sydney.
The evening was an opportunity for CareerTrackers to celebrate the achievements of the organisation to date, to thank their many supporters and for their community to meet the talented and inspiring Indigenous students who have been awarded internships through CareerTrackers.
Three interns; Jemaine, Grace and Kate, eloquently shared their stories with the gathering. Working at three quite different organisations whilst completing their studies, each of the interns had overcome substantial challenges to make it to this point. Jemaine, despite not being given the support he needed at school, was now studying architecture and completing his internship at SJB Architects. He likened the ‘stubborn instruction’ shown by the staff at SJB to the traditional methods of learning that were handed down through the generations in Indigenous culture. Grace, from Armidale, told the group about how an internship from Microsoft gave her an introduction to a world of work simply not available to her in a country town. And Kate, a mature student, shared how CareerTrackers helped her to realise that the sum of her short courses, experience and skills gained over twenty years caring for her family made her eminently employable. Kate’s internship with Best Buddies, an organisation that encourages one-on-one friendships between volunteers and intellectually disabled people, will also draw on her experience of caring for her daughter, an elite athlete with an intellectual disability.
SVA supported CareerTrackers with funding through the Supporting Social Enterprises Project (SSEP), funded by the Australian Government, which creates employment for those excluded from the labour market.
