Learn Locals creating a pathway to jobs

Learning about the workplace is helping learners gain the skills and confidence to find a job.

Cultura is one of the largest Learn Local providers in Geelong. They deliver foundational skills to learners from migrant and refugee backgrounds.

Cultura has built strong referral pathways with:

• The Gordon
• Victoria University
• Wyndham Community Education Centre.

The pathways help learners pursue further training or transition into employment.

To enhance learning, some of Cultura’s courses include workplace excursions where learners engage with employees, ask questions, and gain insights into different jobs.

Sonia Nayyer, a teacher at Cultura, said providing work experience opportunities are important because they:

• Expose learners to real-world environments and expectations.
• Help them connect classroom learning to practical contexts.
• Build confidence and motivation by experiencing new settings.
• Improve understanding of Australian workplace and education culture.
• Enhance communication, teamwork, and problem-solving skills.

Learners value these work experience activities. They become an essential component of Cultura’s course offerings.

To assist more Learn Locals to develop and embed work experience activities into their courses, we launched a new Learn Local Learning for Work program last week.

The program includes comprehensive guidelines and advice, as well as a grant to help cover setup costs and logistics of arrangements in collaboration with employers.

The program will give pre-accredited learners even more opportunities to increase their confidence by gaining an understanding of workplaces in supportive environments.

There are more than 200 Learn Locals across the state - supporting almost 30,000 Victorians each year to access essential skills for life and work.

To learn more, visit the Learn Local website.