Skills and Job Centre now open at Preston

Melbourne Polytechnic’s Skills and Job Centre is now open at Preston campus.

After several years of providing course and career advice to prospective students and anyone looking to further their career, the team of expert advisers have moved out of their Plenty Valley and Northland shopfronts and will be open for business as usual right on campus.

Skills and Job Centre Team Leader Carlos Martinez says their new premises will be located at Preston library – and their services will be the same, free to anyone who walks in the doors or registers online, with all services being available now.

The team of Education and Course Advisers will continue to share their expertise on courses, enrolment processes, job-hunting and resume writing, with a fresh focus on providing more career development information and assistance.

Pathways to employment

Carlos says he and his team have been working with many people who are exploring career options and will continue to help many migrant workers in the community who are seeking pathways to employment.

‘We have many different visitors to our Skills and Job Centres, school leavers, new migrants or those who have been here for a few years, but they've just received their permanent residency so they want to find information about the local market, courses, the government initiatives.

‘I've also been offering information on the ‘Working for Victoria’ initiative, providing information to our clients and monitoring changes and updates.

‘We see a lot of people that have not worked in the last few years, especially mums returning to work. So, they need to find out what are the next steps. They might be looking for a course or they might want to get back to a job, we provide assistance and information to help them get started.’

So what’s the process?

When a client arrives at the Skills and Job Centre, advisers have an initial chat with them to understand their needs.

‘If it's course related, then the adviser will be able to provide information about different courses, the enrolment process, when classes are starting, prerequisites, etc,’ Carlos says.

‘Then if the client doesn’t know what to do, we might refer them to our career counsellor, who will help this client to find out what are their strengths and what are the things that they would like to do.’

The Skills and Job Centre holds take-away information for all of Melbourne Polytechnic’s  courses and currently advisers are taking bookings for career workshops, and resume and cover letter writing assistance.

‘We run career workshops and assist clients with their resumes, especially people new to Australia; we offer information on Australian work culture and current market trends. We focus more on the career development of our clients instead of just directing them to a course’ Carlos says.

What services are available?

Service available at the Skills and Job Centre include:

• Careers advice
• Help with job searching
• Career counselling
• Assistance preparing resumes
• Apprenticeship and traineeship advice
• Assistance using the Victorian Skills Gateway
• Referral to welfare support and financial advice
• Assistance in using existing skills to align to a new job or to undertake new training (Recognition of Prior Learning)
• Information on employment trends, areas with a shortage in skills and employment opportunities
• Assistance with career and training plans, identifying training qualifications that could be undertaken to make a successful career transition

You can book a session or find out more here