Leadership program launched

CURRENT and former participants of the Committee for Ballarat’s Future Shapers leadership program met at Federation University’s Tech Park last week to kick off the 2021 course.

After finding out she was included in the initiative the week before, Future Shapers participant and fundraising officer at Federation University Pam Sutcliffe said she was excited to have made it through the rigorous application process.

“We had a process at work where you put in an expression of interest, then once that was approved you applied through the program, then the interview process was different this year because of Zoom and videos,” she said.

“It’s really exciting, the ability to be able to get a mentor to work with and be able to increase your leadership skills while having the opportunity to sink your teeth into projects that can make a real difference in the community.

“I look after fundraising at the University, so for me I’m looking forward to working with community people identifying where the holes are, where we’re not providing scholarships to students that would otherwise not be able to attend university.”

Fellow participant from Safety Xperts, Caylene, Vincent said throughout the program, she’s most looking forward being exposed to a variety of perspectives and opinions.

“We’ll have some great people on our journey that we can bounce off and learn from,” she said.

“I’m in the process of launching a new business, I work in safety and I’m launching the opportunities for businesses to get accredited as a safe space and safe business.

“I’ll also utilise this program to launch that idea.”

After joining the program mid last year, program facilitator Ellen Jackson said she’s really excited to see things through this year right from the beginning.

“Very excited that we’ve got to this point because it’s been a lot of hard work to get here and to see some of the plans I’ve been hatching over the last six months actually come to fruition,” she said.

“I don’t think we imagined we would be in a position to do this and we’re crossing our fingers that it stays that way however, we have learnt that we can actually do things differently if we need to.

“I’m most looking forward to seeing the growth and development of all of the participants, they did have to jump through a few hoops to get here but that means we know we have a group of motivated, highly enthusiastic and engaged people.”