Fitted for Work in Sydney has been working exceptionally hard to support the Sydney community.
Over the past month, here are FIVE ways we have been making a difference – let us know what you think!
ONE: Creating Partnerships that Make Sense
Fitted for Work has been an integral part of a career exploration program with Australian Schools Industry Partnership Incorporated (AUSSIP), an organisation dedicated to improving outcomes for school students.
Fitted for Work have provided a job prep workshop and fitting to Year 10 female students as part of that programme.
Candice, our assistant manager in Sydney, spoke with the students sharing her career story and how she arrived at her current role with Fitted for Work.
Hearing Candice’s career story resonated with the students, especially given the relatively similar age differences, the could really see how volunteering could lead to paid work.
This early pilot has been quite well received and AUSSIP are exploring plans to expand the program.
TWO: Supporting School Career Days
Fitted for Work undertook a workshop with Cumberland High School as part of their exciting Career Day event.
We gave the female students the opportunity to undertake our exclusive job preparation workshop.
We received wonderful feedback from the students who felt they had learned quite a bit across their brief experience with the program.
THREE: Making Connections with Culturally & Linguistically Diverse Women
We’ve also been working with the Culturally & Linguistically Diverse (CALD) community.
Typically, a CALD woman is
- New to Australia
- English is not her first language
- She may or may not have a recognised qualification
- She has no professional networks to help her find work and may have to embark on further study in order to secure an interview
- If she is partnered, they may be her only support
- She can feel very isolated without a personal network to fall back on
Fitted for Work reaches a number of CALD women through our multicultural women’s job preparation hub.
But we have also been innovative in extending our reach to parents of CALD children and broader community of the local Westmead Public School.
Fitted for Work is currently delivering our WomanKind Programme, to mums from Westmead.
Just recently, this group joined Fitted for Work corporate partner Sage Australia for a career day which was very well received by the participants.
FOUR: Teaching Personal Branding in Interviews: What’s your Pitch?
Our previous WomanKind group plus some outfitting and resume clients, came for a visit to our Parramatta Boutique.
The topic was personal branding; “What’s Your Pitch?”
It was delivered by an IBM Executive and focused on up-skilling the Clients in developing their own unique strengths during the interview process.
Had great feedback from that from the women from that session.
FIVE: Bringing “Booyah” Corporate Style to Women Experiencing Disadvantage in Regional Australia
Fitted for Work has been busy developing an amazing new prototype virtual styling service called PACK and SEND.
So, we’ve partnered with Clients on the NSW central coast with a local job action provider called Optek where we are providing virtual styling sessions to the women in those regional areas.
We do the initial consultation through Skype, follow it up by sending out clothing, packages, shoes, accessories, everything for the women to wear to the job interviews.
Follow up again with the women if they want some support around the interview preparation.
We ask the Clients the exact same questions we ask them in the boutique; the focus is on building rapport quickly and letting the Client know up front what to expect, then asking;
- What type of work are you going for?
- What are you looking for?
- What do you like to wear?
- What kind of clothes?
- Which fabric do you love wearing?
- What are your favourite colours?
We work really hard to create 100% matches between a Client’s clothing desires and package delivery and send then an exciting styling pack through the mail.
Thus far, it’s been a great match ratio, with exceptionally positive feedback from the Clients.
So the pilot is looking fantastic.
Rotary in Cairns have contacted Fitted for Work and asked a very passionate question; “How can we get Fitted to Work to work with our youth in Cairns?”
But Fitted for Work can’t do it without any funding or without any means to pay for the actual picking, packing and delivery of the styling selections.
As a result, the Cairns Football Club have now funded a local project called “The Booyah Project”.
It’s a mentoring-style program run by the local Cairns Police and Cairns Rotary Club.
It focuses on at risk indigenous female youth that have either offended or are at risk of offending.
Over the next couple of months, Fitted for Work are going to support the project through the innovative Pack and Send prototype styling service.
We believe this will make a huge difference to local youth and we will be keenly watching the outcomes of this amazing pilot.
