Rising Star career advice has a job as the goal

JOHN Wall’s three-year-old company is providing a new model of education on the way to employment.

Kylie Hazeltine at Bunnings Blacktown with her boss, Paul Smith.

Providing courses just for the sake of a degree or qualification is an outdated model, Acquire managing director John Wall says, because education cost are rising at unseen levels.

With that in mind, Wall and his three-year-old company are providing a new model of education-to-employment that is seeing thousands of people undertaking courses through to a job at the end, and not wasting money or time studying to go nowhere.

Wall admits going to university 20 years ago to get a better life and to meet girls, but with increasing HECS debts and plans to deregulate uni fees, he says there is a greater need to steer people through courses and help them find a job.

“People’s intrinsic motivation is to see education as a conduit to ultimately work in their dream job,” Wall says. “We understand that education is the only pathway to getting that job.

“We’re finding the right education for people, putting them through a career coach and finding the right job for them.”

Acquire, headed by Walls and co-founders Jesse Sahely, Tim Demetriou and Damien Dau, has established Rising Star, a program that channels people looking for a better life into courses, whether they be online management diplomas, TAFE or university degrees. Candidates are provided with a career adviser, a career champion or coach. and a career hunter, at no cost to the student.

The career adviser talks them through courses that might suit their needs and dream-job aspirations, their champion will mentor them along the way, and the hunter will help them find a position.

Acquire is not a course or job broker, Wall says. It finances its operations by partnering with education providers to receive a financial return from the institution when a student is enrolled.

Of the thousands taking part in the Rising Star program each month, many are early career people who have worked in hospitality or retail and are looking for a direction. Others are people looking for a second career.

“Some want a nursing course, some want to do construction or hairdressing or consulting, some don’t know what they want to do,” Wall says. “We often advise a stream like business or management, a ‘vanilla’ qualification that will give them options.”

The core focus is on finding people white-collar entry-level roles such as administration, sales, supervisors, call centre positions, or the $60,000 per year retail management jobs.

Acquire helps students enrol and they then take part in a 12-week program in conjunction with their course to provide other job-ready skills including goal setting, aptitude testing and even social media etiquette advice, to ensure people do not put off future employers with inappropriate online posts.

The program also includes participation in Rising Star’s one-day You conference, again at no cost.

“We have speakers, pop-up barber stores and hairdressers, CV writers, personal groomers to teach people how to dress for interviews, and we do some social activities,” he says.

Acquire has staff in several Westfield centres, Australia Post stores in Brisbane and Melbourne, and is looking at rolling out 60 super stores. With mentors hitting the road, the company employs hundreds of advisers among its staff of 800. Staff visit employers in their regions to scout for jobs for their candidates and tap into local networks.

Walls says providing career champions and ongoing advice helps students stay in their courses with high completion rates, but the critical factor is the job outcome at the end. “What I think is a big failure is a 100 per cent completion but not a full employment rate,” he says. “I’d rather see 60 per cent completion and full employment. There are always stories about people completing degrees and not getting a job, that’s not an outcome.”

Walls says the company recently expanded into Britain — where it now employs 100 people — and it is considering a move into the US.

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Kylie goes to Bunnings to climb corporate ladder

KYLIE Hazeltine spent 14 years as an executive in the printing industry and was desperate for change.

She had moved up the corporate ladder from sales and had battled a shrinking, blokey industry.

“I’ve never been very precious about what I did and learning from the ground up you have an appreciation for people working on the machines day in, and day out,” Hazeltine says.

She was not looking for another title, and instead took a step back, at age 39, and questioned whether she wanted to stay in a corporate role in the same industry for another 20 years.

“It was a big decision and was going to effect my husband and I,” she says. “I made the decision to walk away from this, re-educate myself and find another job. I’m going to be really, really happy, I’m going to do something for myself.”

Being unemployed “freaked” her out, and despite resigning from a high-paying job, all the money in the world could not buy her happiness. Unsure what to do, Hazeltine began applying for jobs through Acquire.

The recruitment firm noticed the number of applications she was submitting and contacted her in October, asking whether she might consider a course tied to its Rising Star program.

“Less than a week later I was enrolled in a business management course and started studying,” she says.

“My goal is to finish it this year. It’s a two-year course but I’ve been dedicating every moment of time to it and I’m almost halfway through.”

As a people person, Hazeltine started looking for jobs while studying with help from her Rising Star mentors.

She is now working as an activities co-ordinator at Bunnings’ new Blacktown store.