Women graduate training programs

THIRTY migrant, asylum seeker, and refugee women graduated last Friday from work preparation programs offered by a local humanitarian organisation.

The participants from SisterWorks’s Bendigo hub undertook either small business or hospitality training programs.

Bendigo program manager Maria Gillies said the courses run for up to nine weeks, and the recent graduates are the largest group she’s seen so far.

Ms Gillies said when women first come to the organisation they often have low self-esteem and signs of poor mental health, but as they gain new skills and form connections they noticeably brighten.

“What we recognise is that with these kind of cohorts, they’re usually more responsive when there’s no men around,” Ms Gillies said.

“They become a team, so they support each other. It’s like a sisterhood.”

Ms Gillies said the programs are pre-accredited which makes the trainings more accessible to people who come from different cultural backgrounds.

The hospitality training comes with the food competency unit for food handling which she said they “really need” to get into the hospitality industry.

“The best thing about it is they tend to support each other, they form friendships and they’re not so isolated,” said Ms Gillies

“When you’re new in a country and you just arrived here, some of them have been here only seven months or a year, and they’re still trying to find their place. That’s one of the most positive outcomes that we have.

“The sense of belonging to a group of women that have the same experience as they do, because they’re all going through the same process, sharing that experience with each other really helps a lot.

“Although there’s limitations sometimes with English, still they get by and they can communicate, and that is really rewarding in terms of the SisterWorks program here.”

SisterWorks has partnered with local businesses such as Poyser Motor Group and Australian Defence Apparel, which have taken on graduates in the past.

“Fifty per cent of them already are doing part-time, a couple already full-time.”

Ms Gillies said spots are still open for the term four programs and registration is due 2 October.

Ms Gillies said women in the Bendigo SisterWorks programs are mainly from Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Afghanistan, and Syria.