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MEDIA RELEASE
Local South Australian alliance proves collaboration is key for refugee employment
The Miss MYSA Events Refugee employment pilot has been listed as one of only four state finalists in the SA Training Awards 2019.
Local social enterprise Miss Mysa Events (MME) teamed up with Quality Training and Hospitality College (QTHC) and Community Corporate to deliver a unique industry solution for unemployed refugees to access skilled work in the hospitality sector.
The first federally funded Launch into Work project in SA and the first refugee youth specific project in Australia aimed to support, skill and secure jobs for refugee youth in a sector facing skills shortages.
“Multicultural Youth SA (MYSA), invested in this social enterprise to provide refugee young people with a pipeline into a career not just a job – we wanted to meet the career aspirations of our clients and look at a unique and exciting way to engage and motivate them to consider the wide range of job opportunities in hospitality, tourism and even administration” Said MYSA CEO, Tamara Stewart-Jones
Having created Adelaide’s newest boutique event styling and management service with a social conscience, MME wanted to build a workforce that gave refugee youth a taste of the industry and hands-on experience in various roles to ignite their passion for creating a memorable customer experience.
Built on strong values alignment, a commitment to advancing diversity and inclusion and an appetite to challenge conventional thinking, these three SA based companies collaborated to deliver life changing career pathways for unemployed refugee young people.
Project managed by SA based and national diversity and inclusion company, Community Corporate this project delivered a strategic industry collaboration with an employer-led approach and culturally customised wrap around support.
“We were very fortunate to team up with MME and QTHC, two organisations very committed to a flexible and responsive approach to support this vulnerable cohort and whose values embraced different ways of achieving genuine employment outcomes for these disadvantaged jobseekers” Said, Community Corporate CEO, Carmen Garcia.
Quality Training and Hospitality College, CEO Richard Finlayson, said “We have been long committed to working with students from many diverse backgrounds and have a team of expert trainers willing and able to customise our delivery techniques to meet the unique learning challenges of these refugee young people.
We found that given the chance, these refugee youth demonstrated a real passion for our industry and more importantly for learning, and were completely committed to the process”
This collaboration delivered 100% employment outcomes for the refugee youth who completed the program, which consisted of accredited and non-accredited training, coaching and work experience.
Stewart-Jones said, “The key to our success was having the right partners. We are very proud of this project and more importantly the lives we helped transform through this program and ultimately through work – it proves that refugees are ready and willing to seize opportunities when they are surrounded and supported by people who genuinely believe in them.”
The collaboration was fuelled by the challenge of developing innovative approaches to support refugee youth with inherent employment barriers, no local experience or skills in hospitality, by igniting their enthusiasm and building on a positive attitude to learn and work in their new home, Australia.
“What our team achieved together through this collaboration just goes to show, what a profound impact we can make to not only help refugee youth into work but build excitement for an industry searching for people who possess the right attitude and appetite for work” Said Garcia.
The winner will be announced at the South Australian Training Awards Presentation Dinner at the Adelaide Convention Centre on Friday 6 September 2019. For more information on the awards and other finalists see: http://www.tasc.sa.gov.au/SA-Training-Awards/2019-Finalists.
DATE: 11 July 2019
Media contacts:
Tamara Stewart-Jones, CEO MYSA and Creative Director of Miss Mysa Events M: 0406713516
Richard Finlayson, CEO Quality Training and Hospitality College M: 0406 532 879
Carmen Garcia, CEO Community Corporate M: 0411289263
