AMEP Youth Class helps student ‘Start a new life’
Our face of AMEP this week is 21 year old Eritrean born, Ghirmai Adonai.
Ghirmai began his journey with AMEP through Wyndham’s Youth Class in February this year which has led to casual work at a fertilizing company.
The youth AMEP program aims to be engaging and focuses on involvement with the local community. Over the course of the year, Ghirmai, along with the other Youth Class participants have been exposed to a range of guest speakers and workshops. These guest speakers have come from the Victoria Police, Wyndham Youth Resource Centre, White Lion and WestJustice. A Youth Employment Lawyer, a Jobs Victoria Employment Network Coach and a motivational speaker have also presented to the class.
Students have also had regular visits from the Werribee Tigers Football Club’s Multicultural Liaison Officer who’s provided support to the Youth Class through discussions and encouraging students to be positive and seek potential opportunities. The class has also toured Werribee Football Club’s facilities and participated in multiple clinics.
Prior to joining the Youth Class, Ghirmai also attended the Ucan2 Program last year. This was run as a partnership between Learning For Employment, Foundation House and the Centre for Multicultural Youth. Ucan2 helps participants to develop language and skills to support settlement in Australia. Participants practice job searching, resume writing and job interviews as well as learning how to balance study with work. Goal setting and pathway planning are also a part of Ucan2 as well as making connections with other young people. Ghirmai mentioned that when he moved to Australia he felt ‘shy to talk to people’ due to his level of English skills however he went on to say that ‘the AMEP class helped me a lot to develop my speaking and listening’.
Ghirmai is now working for a small fertilizing company and when reflecting on his time with the AMEP program he said that, ‘It really helped me a lot! Not only do you learn the English language, but they help you to learn the system and how to start a new life’.