With months of her high school life still remaining, Bundaberg’s Winnie Mudiman has already taken big steps towards gaining extra qualifications for her future after graduation.
As well as studying and completing coursework for her HSC, the 17-year-old student has been taking part in a school-based traineeship with the support of STEPS Bundaberg office.
Since December last year, Winnie (pictured above) has been working at the office of Bundaberg real estate agent Century21 every Friday in order to obtain a Certificate II in Business as well as valuable on-the-job experience. Century21 owner/manager Pat Dixon was instrumental in helping Winnie achieve the traineeship position thanks to her connection with STEPS employment consultant Sheryll-lee. “The arrangement came about because Sheryll-Lee used to work for us and phoned to see if we would have Winnie for work experience,” Ms Dixon says.
Winnie’s enthusiasm for the work and her abilities and attitude during her work experience impressed Ms Dixon so much that it was a simple decision for her when STEPS contacted her to consider Winnie for the school-based traineeship. “We are a real estate sales and property management business and have been established for nearly 20 years, and Winnie is our first school based traineeship person,” she says. “We were approached for Winnie to do the traineeship after she had done her work experience here and absolutely loved the work.
“Every Friday, Winnie works on reception with a wide variety of duties, including running the switchboard, handling general enquiries, receipting and assisting our sales staff.” While Winnie gets the Certificate II in Business and the work experience, Century21 gets her skills in the office as well as ongoing support from STEPS. “I would highly recommend a school-based traineeship to anyone that may consider doing one,” Ms Dixon says.
