Fair Go For The West: Productivity Bootcamp helping people get jobs
A PILOT program training young people in simulated work sites to gain lasting employment is helping more people find jobs.
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THESE young men turn up to work four days a week, but they are yet to find employment.
They are the pilot group for Productivity Bootcamp, a program that trains young people in simulated work sites to gain lasting employment.
The eight-week program includes several days a week on a simulated building site in Mount Druitt and one day in an office where they are instructed on everything from writing a resume and interview skills to gaining confidence and a positive work attitude.
The program is the brainwave of building industry recruiter, Paul Breen, and 2realise, a charity that supports people in the areas of wellbeing, education and employment.
“Youth unemployment is a particular focus of ours because our view is that there is a lot of help out there on how to write a resume and prepare for a job interview, but what about the practical, real-life skills you need to work on a building site, for instance,” 2realise business manager Rebecca Deep said.
“Paul approached us with the idea for Productivity Bootcamp because he saw time and again young people coming onto a building site without the skills they needed to support them. Often he said these young people would drop out of their apprenticeship.”
The program is broken up into practical and support training over the eight weeks.
The six participants spend three days a week on a simulated work site where they learn the hard skills required in the building industry such as steel fixing, concreting and timber work.
On the fourth day they work with Ms Deep in the 2realise office at Rouse Hill working on skills such as having the right attitude and motivational workshops.
They are also given practical support such as getting a license.
“A lot of the young people we will work with are from disadvantaged backgrounds and many may not have finished school,” Ms Deep said.
“But they want a go and they appreciate the opportunities we give them.
“At the end of the eight weeks, we aim to have each participant employed. I think this program works because we look at the whole person, not just the hard skills that make them productive, and we don’t write people off that may not appear to have the obvious skills needed.
“We work with them until they’re ready.”
The program is a finalist in the Start-Up category of The Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph and NewsLocal’s Champions of the West awards, a grants competition for the Fair Go for the West campaign that consists of 14 categories, each offering a $10,000 grant.
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CHAMPIONS of the West rewards ordinary people doing extraordinary things in Western Sydney to the tune of $10,000 grants in multiple categories.
The 2015 grants program is expanded this year to acknowledge the achievements of Western Sydney innovators and those making a difference in their community and respective fields.
This year’s categories include small business, education, sport, and the arts.
The Sunday Telegraph, The Daily Telegraph and NewsLocal— together with corporate partners NAB, NRMA, Crown, UWS, Origin Energy, Harvey Norman, and TAFE WSi — will reward those excelling in their fields.
Are you a Champion of the West? Click on the banner above to enter!
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