The Skills Generator (TSG) at West Gosford is running a Step Out Brick Laying taster course to coincide with National Skills Week.
Vocational education and training (VET) gets young people work-ready and prepared for industry, where expectations can differ vastly to what students are accustomed to in a classroom.
National Skills Week (from 24 to 30 August) is an opportunity to create viable and sustained opportunities for young jobseekers and school-leavers to immerse themselves in the trade sector.
“We know that skill shortages spell entrenched youth unemployment and in a region where the statistics look bleak for Central Coast youth, every attempt to plug young people into industryinformed training is well worth the effort,” said The Skills Generator national development manager, Mr Marcus Watson.
“Always on the lookout for new communitycentric projects that can give jobseekers industrystandard work experience and skill acquisition, TSG is leading the charge this National Skills Week with a Step Out Brick-Laying taster course for aspiring apprentices,” he said.
Partnering with the Australian Brick and BlockLaying Training Foundation (ABBTF) and Sarina Russo Apprenticeships, TSG is giving participants the chance to get unfiltered insight into brick-laying apprenticeships.
Led by a qualified trainer, young jobseekers and school students will learn the basics of bricklaying as they construct a pizza oven for the site. “We give job-seekers genuine opportunities to acquire new skills and get work-ready and we do that through brokering partnerships with other big players in the vocational sector.
“This means our participants are plugged into a network of employers, trainers and service providers who can facilitate their transition into the workforce.”
The week will culminate on Friday, August 28, with The Skills Generator Open Day; a celebration where participants can admire their hard work and rub shoulders with Construction and Building employers, group training organisation YC Industry Link, Sarina Russo Apprenticeships and community leaders like member for Robertson, Ms Lucy Wicks MP.
Hunter TAFE will also be accompanied by their mobile Paint and Panel van, showcasing their upcoming Certificate II Paint and Panel course to be run via TSG in September.
Media release
24 August 2015
Ruby Wharton
Youth Connections