BUSY At Works Career and Placement Team look back on successful year
Since opening BUSY’s Scarborough Street office in Southport on 1 July last year the team have been hard at work engaging with employers, job seekers and school graduates while focusing on delivering the Australian Apprenticeship Support Services Gateway Services.
BUSY At Work’s Career and Placement Advisor (CAPA) Coordinator, Gillian Quinn said Australian Apprenticeship Support Services is designed to reduce red tape and improve apprenticeship and traineeship completion rates and replaces the Australian Apprenticeship Centres (AACs).
“Since commencing the new program our Career and Placement Advisors have serviced more than 200 employers and successfully placed over 50 new apprentices and trainees. We have also provided career advice and Gateway Services to nearly 200 clients.”
“Our Gateway Services have been designed for the employer and the job seeker to receive the most relevant service applicable to their own circumstances,” Ms Quinn said.
Gillian said BUSY utilises four career assessment tools for Gateway Services which assist in identifying the most suitable career pathway for apprentices and trainees.
The career assessment tools include the Esher House Apprenticeship Commitment Assessment, the Harrison Career Assessment, the CareerMe® Smartphone app and the Apprenticeship Central website.
“These tools help ensure job seekers and prospective apprentices are matched specifically with suitable employers, or other Vocational Education and Training (VET) and career pathways that suit their skills, aptitude and relevant interests,” Ms Quinn said.
In November the CAPA team provided a trial program of free career information nights for Year 12 graduates and their parents.
“The information sessions provided a great platform for our team to talk with students and provide information about Australian Apprenticeship Support Services and how BUSY’s Gateway Services can assist them in choosing their careers. As a result of attending the career nights a number of the students gained interviews for apprenticeship positions.”
“We are planning to run these sessions again earlier in the year and also make them available to other job seekers,” Ms Quinn added.
For 2016, Gillian said she expected the team would spend more time working with their jobactive partners on programs aimed at youth and mature aged job seekers.
A new pilot program the CAPA team have recently commenced is the Skills Checkpoint Pilot which is being offered in Brisbane, Gold Coast, Roma, Cairns, Perth and South-West WA in partnership with CoAct and Skill360.
The six month program is open to employees aged 45 to 54 where they can access information and advice on how they can use their existing skills to gain new jobs or help them understand what skills and training may be required if they were to change careers.
BUSY At Work CEO, Paul Miles was delighted with the efforts of the Career and Placement Advisory team who were helping both young and mature aged people secure their futures.
“The team is successfully delivering a high quality service which can be tailored to each individual job seeker. The outcome to date has been tremendous and the team will continue to help job seekers and employers get the right fit. Placing the right people in the right positions in the first place is what our Gateway Services is all about,” Mr Miles said.
