Meet Melina, an Industrial Engineer with a Masters in Project Management and carer for her 3 and a half year old son, Dylan, who has developmental delays and autistic like symptoms. Having immigrated from Venezuela with 9 years experience in her industry and financial pressures that made finding paid work an urgent necessity she says, “I had a resume that wouldn’t get me a job at McDonalds.”
She now shares her employment journey experience with Carers WA Be Job Ready course saying, “we started the course with our self-esteem and self-confidence shattered. And after these 9 weeks, we have all come out of the other end not only with our self-esteem and self confidence restored but with a new found feeling of hope for the future.”
Melina says that, “from what I have seen; the partnerships, marriages, relationships, etc… of carers usually break under the pressure of the role of the carer. That happened to me, with Dylan’s father’s income out of the picture… I have been left in a situation where I feel the urgency to provide for my child and myself… I find the help that I have been given by Michelle (Be Job Ready Trainer) invaluable.”
“I am from Venezuela, I am 40 years old and I migrated to this wonderful country that I now have the luck to call home in 2015. Caring for Dylan has been the greatest challenge of my life. Since he was born, I could tell he was different. My role as a mother has always been extremely demanding. The most difficult aspect about caring for Dylan has been the sleep deprivation. He didn’t really sleep until he turned 3, emotionally speaking, I was a skeleton of a woman… the little energy that I managed to gather, I used to get my child help. There was nothing in me left for myself. Carers need help too, and we often need help when we are in no state to ask for it. That is why your job is so important.”
During the last 9 weeks, Melina says that the Be Job Ready course has, “taught me how to write a resume in a way that is appealing to Australian employers, how to write cover letters (I have to say that we don’t use cover letters in Venezuela, so they are fairly new to me), interviewing techniques, and so much more.”
She says the highlight was, “The realization that my skills are transferable, and I am capable of doing many jobs outside of my previous experiences. In the future I hope to find a job that will open the doors to work my way up to a position where I feel challenged.”
Her advice for other carers like her is, “’Go for it! Even if you don’t use the knowledge that you gain right away, that knowledge will be there when you need it. Plus, it will do wonders for your spirit.”
To find out more or to register to attend a Be Job Ready course click here.
