Tyronne Is Helping Champion Employment Opportunities
Jul 26, 2019
Whitelion’s Employment Team works hard to ensure young people can access work. Members of the team are known as Employment Mentors because they walk alongside young people offering judgment free help to overcome barriers to work, at the same time as growing aspirations for a career. One of our Employment Mentors, Tyronne Gietzmann shares with us his experience working with a young woman whose barriers to work were getting in the way of her dreams – until perseverance paid off!
Tyronne began working with a young woman, Nousha, whose mother had visited Iran and was unable to re-enter Australia due to Visa issues. Without her mother’s support Nousha became homeless. Suddenly, Nousha’s goals to undertake a traineeship in a corporate environment came to a halt. Without a home, how could Nousha possibly start looking for a traineeship?
Tyronne supported Nousha to secure housing in a local Foyer (integrated learning and accommodation environments). From there Nousha and Tyronne started working together on traineeship applications, but another setback saw Nousha’s own Visa status change to a Bridging Visa. This meant Nousha was restricted in her traineeship options. Tyronne changed direction and encouraged Nousha to apply for casual jobs while awaiting stabilisation of her Visa status.
Tyronne said, “Casual fast food roles might not sound glamorously first but they are actually amazing steppingstones. They provide an income and useful work experience in retail and hospitality. With Nousha earning and in stable housing I could turn my support to helping Nousha navigate the immigration process”.
“It was a long wait for Nousha to have her permanent residency reinstated,” Tyronne said. “Nousha showed tenacity during this time and hung in there with Whitelion. Once Nousha’s Visa permitted, Whitelion put her forward for a Government Cadetship Program. After intensive interview training and support, Nousha got the position.”
It has been more than one year since Nousha was employed and she is happily working in an industry that can provide her with future growth and a career. Tyronne is happy to report that Nousha is excitedly planning her first holiday since being in the traineeship.
Tyronne said, “One final piece of good news from this story - Nousha’s mother was eventually able to return to Australia to be reunited with her daughter.