Working in a New Culture

Celebrating the professionals of tomorrow

It’s a Friday morning in Spectrum’s Sunshine Office, and a group of professionals are hard at work in a conference room, taking notes and listening intently to a presentation.

What sets them apart from other morning meetings in offices across Melbourne, is that this diverse group of professionals are all newly-arrived in Australia, from as far away as Eritrea and Afghanistan, mostly as humanitarian migrants and asylum seekers. They’re taking part in WINC (Working in a New Culture), one of Spectrum’s flagship Settlement programs in Melbourne’s west. Lead by facilitators, employment experts Mo and Gebru, the WINC program participants have spent the last five weeks developing essential skills for success in the Australian workforce.

The program is comprehensive and empowering, exploring job laws and professional rights and responsibilities in Australia, helping participants contribute to safe and healthy working environments. There’s practical skills and tips for creating resumes and tailored applications for jobs across a range of industries. WINC supplies useful resources for self-employment and training options for in-demand sectors.  There’s also helpful professional insights about work life in Australia to understand the workplace cultures of different environments, how to connect with colleagues and work effectively with managers.

Spectrum WINC program facilitators Mo and Gebru award participants

 

Sitting among the group as they chat about career pathways and recent job interviews, it would be easy to forget that many of this group have survived incredibly difficult circumstances. Despite the upheaval of moving across the world, trauma, culture shock and isolation from loved ones, our WINC participants show deep resilience. They’re eager to absorb local knowledge and professional intel, and throw themselves wholeheartedly into life as working Australian professionals and community members.

Holding space for hope

In any kind of group program, the term holding space is often used. For our facilitators, holding space in the WINC program is about empowering each participant to succeed, through acknowledging two realities that exist alongside each other in their settlement journey.

The first, is the importance of ‘big hope’ – that is, the ideal career, the inspiring goals, the dreams that are so important to every person but especially those who have made the difficult journey far from home for a better life.

“Hope”, says one participant thoughtfully, “is sometime the only thing that you have to keep moving”.

For each of our WINC participants, their ‘big hope’ looks different. One, a PhD-qualified engineer, aims to make the kind of impact befitting his expertise and many years of study; another, with skills in physical therapy, lights up at the prospect of a career spent helping athletes to achieve incredible feats; another speaks of her passion to bring comfort to the ill and injured as an emergency hospital nurse; yet another aims to have his own shop that operates as a central point to the local community. Mo and Gebru, our Spectrum facilitators, work to keep each person’s ‘big hope’ aflame, helping with research and support to lay out the steps needed for their unique dreams to be fulfilled.

The second reality is that, like many new migrants and refugees in Australia, there are significant barriers in place for the participants from language and isolation, to having their qualifications recognised properly. This can sometimes mean starting from square one in entry-level roles or training that may be different from their area of passion, experience, skills or study.

Today the WINC participants, now on their final session of the program, have developed a deep understanding of how those entry-level steps can help to build security, language, professional connections and carve a path toward their ideal career.

 WINC program participants receive their certificates of completion

 

Stepping stones to success

Many of us would find it challenging to take on a job role that may be different from our expertise, or below our qualification level, in order to achieve a longer-term goal. It would be hard to not become discouraged by these and other barriers. Yet, Mo and Gebru strive to convey to their participants the inherent dignity in all work, as as a stepping stone to a rewarding career and an opportunity for new skills and beneficial experiences.

One way in which they do this, is by supporting WINC participants to discover related job options in their eventual career field of interest. This enables them to build a network of contacts, industry knowledge and soft skills that will benefit their future aspirations. Explains one participant, “I have learned here that every job – any job – has something good it can teach me. Mo and Gebru help me to think about, what can I learn in these jobs? Whatever I become in my career, I will not forget these things”.

Celebration and reflection

To celebrate the completion of their WINC program, there are certificates, applause, sharing of local and international cuisines, chatting and laughing together. There is also a note of sadness. The group members explain that they’ll miss each other, the comforting routine of their weekly gatherings, and the boost of confidence that each session gives them about their future in Australia.

They’ll miss Mo and Gebru too. Says one participant, “I have loved that Mo will not ever give up if we do not understand or we need more help. It doesn’t matter what problem or difficulty, she will say ‘okay, let’s talk together and figure out a way’”.

Agrees another member, “It makes me look at problems in a different way, a good way. I know now that here in Australia there is always a solution! I just need to find it”. [Mo and Gebru] have been so kind. I feel more confident also in my English, and to talk to more new people in my day, because [they] always invite us to talk and build more language. Even when we are talking and eating pizzas like today, I am learning! And I feel so strong.”.

As the WINC program members chat together about their hopes and next career steps, one can’t help but be struck by the knowledge that most are speaking together in their second, third, even fourth language. That they have overcome immeasurable hardship, and continue to bear up against hurdles even to make it to the program. That despite their own significant stressors, they take time to listen to each other’s stories, learn about other cultures, and applaud each other’s successes. This diverse group of new Australians have already demonstrated incredible resilience, consistency and the kind of enthusiasm for learning, that would be a boon for any employer.

It could be easy to overlook, too, that each of these individuals can change Australia for the better.

Settlement programs like WINC help participants develop knowledge of the Australian working environment, find training and employment options, learn their rights and build their professional skills. But what they also do, is ensure our communities benefit from their expertise and know-how. The nurses, engineers, retailers, therapists and professionals of tomorrow – that our own communities need in order to thrive – are right here. With so much journey behind them, and hopefully bright moments of opportunity ahead.

Our team are so pleased to support our Working in a New Culture (WINC) program participants. To act as a bridge connecting these ambitious and passionate professionals to jobs and careers that make our communities better places for us all.

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To find out more about Spectrum’s Employment programs and services, and how you can participate, support or refer, visit: spectrumvic.org.au/service/employment-services/

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    WINC program participants celebrate their successful program completion with Spectrum facilitators Mo and Gebru