Daystar Foundation providing youth in the West with the skills they need to get employed

NOT-for-profit employment agency Daystar Foundation is tackling youth unemployment head-on, with great success.

NOT-for-profit employment agency Daystar Foundation is tackling youth unemployment head-on.

In just 18 months it has helped 230 youths and has a 93 per cent success rate in placing them in jobs or further study.

As the director of employment at the Daystar Foundation Queenie Connell says they work with young job seekers intensively so they are prepared to go into daunting job interviews.

“We have helped over 230 youths in the Liverpool/Fairfield area,” she said. “We work with 40 students every day for three to four weeks intensively and aim to improve their resume writing skills and also provide them with professional clothing.”

CEO and founder Kingi Williams, Mirika Williams (Director of Youth and Family Support), Queenie Connell (Director of Youth Employment), Paula Majstorovic (Director of Positive Youth Development) and student and participant of iCareer Reremoana Brown.

The Daystar Foundation is nominated in the Employment category of The Telegraph and NewsLocal’s Champions of the West awards — a grants competition for the Fair Go for the West campaign that consists of 13 categories, each offering a $10,000 grant.

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Ms Connell said the Foundation’s iCareer course, which helps students learn skills such as how to write a resume, how to dress for an interview and even the types of jobs to apply for, gives

Lachlan Bates, a 20-year-old from Mount Pritchard, was frustrated with his 18-month search for a job. He signed up to complete the month-long intensive career pathways course and before it even finished, he had landed a job.

“I was over the moon, I couldn’t believe it,” Mr Bates, who works at Fairfield Hospital as a wards person, said.

“What they taught me was so simple but it made all the difference in the world to me and gave me so much.

“I was feeling so disheartened and frustrated until I did the course, every week it would be the same bad response, it made me feel worthless.

“And there are so many other people my age in the same situation, it’s really tough.”

As Mr Bates said, his story is sadly not unique.

One in three youths in the Liverpool/Fairfield region are unemployed and youth unemployment is on the Fair Go for the West’s action plan, which targets improving inequities in Western Sydney.

Daystar Foundation CEO, Kingie Williams, said if they win in their category, they will put the $10,000 towards further iCareer programs to help more youths.

“For every student we help find employment, we save taxpayers $21,000,” he said. “With the prize money, we would be able to put eight more students through our program.”