Geelong graduate recognised at vocational awards

GEELONG businesswoman Lisa Miller has been honoured as one of three finalists for the Victorian Vocational Student of the Year.

A category in the Victorian Training Awards, the Vocational Student of the Year awards celebrates the outstanding achievements of vocational education students, teachers, training providers and the businesses who train them across Victoria.

The awards evening was held last week in Melbourne.

“I wanted to go back to school and retrain myself and just get updated because it’s been a few years since I’ve been in aged care in disability,” Ms Miller said.

“And as a mum with special needs kids who are teenagers now, it was the right time for me to try to study again too.”

Having graduated from a Certificate IV in Disability with genU Training late last year, Ms Miller has wasted no time using the skills and knowledge she learnt in her course to launch her own business, Heart 2 Heart Community Respite Carer Service.

A parent of twins with disability, she knows first-hand what it’s like to use NDIS services (mostly getting access to respite services) and is determined to create a service she would want to use herself.

Her vision is to create a service which emphasised “quality over quantity”, smaller group sizes and a focus on community and skills building.

Ms Miller said the strong foundation the genU Training course gave her, and the support she received from training staff, equipped her with the skills to launch her business.