“Find something that gives you hope for the future, then find people who will sit with you, guide you, and help you. We need help in the right way. I found this at Macquarie Community College, and it made all the difference.”
The answer to improving everything in a new country, Ayana^ has found, is study. Correction: the right kind of study.
Nowadays, Ayana is a successful worker in the Aged Care industry who enjoys heart-warming interactions with clients every day. However, Aged Care is a different industry from the one Ayana thought she’d be working in when she first migrated to Australia from Ethiopia.
Ayana’s experience
Ayana is a qualified dentist with a five-year university degree that she earned in her country of origin. But the barriers to entering her profession in Australia were numerous and substantial. The Australian employment agency, whose role is to assist migrants looking for work, sent her to work at a factory production line instead of helping her find the pathway to work in her field. Eventually, she discovered that she would need to pass extremely high standards of English proficiency that can even prove challenging for native speakers.
Determined to use her scientific mind, Ayana left her small circle of supportive family members in Sydney and moved to Canberra where she completed a two-year Diploma of Laboratory Science. Following graduation, she explains how she applied for hundreds of jobs, making it to only five or six interviews.
“It was always ‘Sorry, Ayana,’ and usually came down to my lack of Australian work experience.” This is a common problem faced by new immigrants.
Temporarily defeated, Ayana moved back to Sydney. Then, in 2017, she recognised a solution. The CareerPathways* program, run by the Department of Family and Community Services in which Macquarie Community College was a training partner, specifically tailored training and services to meet the needs of migrant women experiencing barriers to work.
It made all the difference to Ayana.
It was a relief to finally find the kind of support that migrant women needed.Ayana graduated with a CHC33015 Certificate III in Individual Support (Ageing & Disability) and was offered a job during her work placement – even before she graduated! She also went on to graduate from the CHC43115 Certificate IV in Disability from Macquarie Community College.
SKILLS4You makes all the difference
The newly launched SKILLS4You program is similar to the CareerPathways program that Ayana benefited from, applying tried and tested training and support techniques for migrant women wishing to enter caring careers, including aged care, childcare, disability care.
Unique to Macquarie Community College, SKILLS4You consists of quality, fee-free** training that includes ‘wrap-around’ services; intentional gap-filling experiences that boost work experience, language, and general work readiness in conjunction with their chosen course.
The College has decades of success educating and supporting women like Ayana—as well as those with much less academic experience than her—and have always made their courses student centred and outcomes focused.
In the process, the SKILLS4You program creates stronger families and communities because migrant women find:
- Social participation. This occurs naturally when empowered migrant and refugee women participate in a shared learning experience. Women like Ayana develop a strong support network of friends and colleagues.
- A healthy, holistic environment in which to blossom. Through wrap-around support services that combine work experience and job readiness with formal training in English, job ready training and qualifications, graduates are set up for work. Like Ayana, they often find employment before they’ve even completed their Certificate course.
- Community and employment connections. Macquarie Community College’s partnerships in the community services sector (aged care, disability and childcare), and the quality of our training, mean that our graduates are in high demand.
(Macquarie Community College was recently recognised by the NSW Department of Education as a High Performing Provider for Smart & Skilled, the funding under which SKILLS4You is offered.)
This lovely one and that lovely one
“I am happy with my life. I know I am going to see this lovely one or that lovely one. It fits my family schedule well.I love caring for old people. I feel like ‘This is my mum or my dad.’ They need you there to help, to be kind, to be responsible, to give them love.”
Her new life mantra, as one of her lovely clients suggested, is: “Enjoy your life, especially with your family—and don’t become old!”
How Can You Access SKILLS4You?
Macquarie Community College is under contract with the NSW State Government as a Smart and Skilled and Adult Community Education (ACE) provider. This means that the program is fee-free for eligible students.
Our next classes start:
Speak to us about whether SKILLS4You is suitable for you or your clients.
- Call 1300 845 888 and ask for Sandra McKinney, or email sandra.mckinney@macquarie.nsw.edu.au.
- Visit our website or download the SKILLS4You brochure.
Read more about SKILLS4You
- The Course That Unlocked Olga’s Happiness
- SKILLS4You: The Path to a Better Life for Migrant Women – Noura’s Story
- Migrant women relieved to find support in Macquarie Community College’s highly anticipated SKILLS4You program
^ Names and details have been changed for privacy reasons.
* The CareerPathways Program was run by the Department of Family and Community Services in partnership with the Department of Industry and Training, for which Macquarie Community College was a training partner.
** Eligibility criteria apply.