Workskil Australia is a national not-for-profit and charity committed to assisting people through employment, youth, Indigenous and disability services.
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They have nine offices in the Hunter region. Nadina Potter manages the Transition to Work program and spoke about the valuable work they do.
"Transition to Work is a federally funded service to support young people aged 15-21 on their journey to enter employment or complete education, said Ms Potter
"The service provides intensive, pre-employment support to improve the work-readiness of young people and help them into work, including apprenticeships and traineeships or education.
"We get to work with teenagers and young adults across a range of activities, helping them to develop, both personally and socially, often with the objective of helping them re-engage into school, work and/or the community.
"My team and I enjoy plotting the path for young people and watching and them flourish. We are here to mentor and assist them on their journey.
"On occasion we have to pick them up if they fall, but the beauty is they don't give up, they get up shake themselves off and move forward."
Working closely with the high schools in the area and Workskil has a great relationship with PCYC. They have also struck a great partnership with Jupiter who are a non for profit counselling service in Port Stephens who saw a need and created a solution.
"Why do you like working with young people?" is a question I constantly hear. The response I give is always the same "I do it because I love it!
"Each day presents a new challenge that keeps me stimulated to learn more. The work can be very frustrating or fantastically rewarding but it is never, ever boring.
"The joy of working with young people is that it is always different. Each young person is unique, they bring their own life experience, needs and expectations.
"We celebrate the small wins, like getting their learner's permit or passing the driving test.
"We push them to be the best person they can be and give them the skills to take into the future.
"We could easily just write their resumes for them but I would rather give them the skills to do this themselves."
Nadina says the youth they work with inspires her to be a better person, be open to new opportunities and take every chance she is given.
"One of the young ones who has moved into full time employment gave me a sign which is in my office. It simply states "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - this is our motto."
Visit: www.workskil.com.au for more information.
