Tia is a coordinator for the internship and mentoring programs. She is passionate about helping participants going through programs and transitioning into workplaces.
Transcript Available
Ryan: Welcome to Speak My Language, a podcast where in each episode we share the exciting life experiences of people with disabilities within our multicultural communities. I'm your host Ryan Chan. I am serving the Ethnic Communities Council of Queensland. In the podcast, we will hear about the life led by friends with disabilities in our multicultural community, learning how to use newly acquired skills and community resources to live a better life every day. We invite friends with physical disabilities to share their own stories, and we will also find special guests from various organisations to tell us about nice places and interesting activities suitable for friends with physical disabilities. Hello everyone! I'm Ryan. The guest we have today is Tia Kwan. I will call her Tia. She is from the Australian Network on Disability, also called AND. If translated into Chinese, it is 澳洲殘障人士網絡 (Australian Network on Disability). Tia is here today to mainly introduce the two job search and career counselling programs run by their organisation. These programs will help people with disabilities or long-term illnesses to better integrate into the workplace and obtain career counselling. Hello, Tia. Thank you for taking the time to join our podcast today.
Tia: Hello, Ryan. Hello everyone, my name is Tia.
Ryan: Tia, I know that you are in charge of the operations of these two programs. Your title is Program Coordinator from Australian Network on Disability. Can you briefly tell us the names of the two programs and what they involve?
Tia: No problem. I run two programs, one is called Stepping into Internship program, which is an internship program, and the other is called PACE Mentoring Program, which is a career mentoring program. Stepping into Internship program is designed for college students with disabilities or long-term illnesses to obtain an internship opportunity. This opportunity is provided by our members and organisations, including many large companies, banks, government agencies. They run internship programs, offering paid positions. The internship is not an unpaid. Through these programs, students can expand their resumes, gain a better understanding of workplace conditions, while receiving professional guidance. The other PACE Mentoring Program is for everyone no matter you are a student or not. As long as you are over 18 years old with disabilities or long-term illnesses, you can apply for this career counselling program. No age limit. Then we will match you with a mentor in the workplace. These mentors are from organisations that are members in our network. So the big companies, big government agencies, etc., that we mentioned will have people from various professions as potential mentors. You will meet or have meetings with them to understand what you need to pay attention to in your job search, or to help you with your career planning, etc. It will be helpful to your career.
Ryan: Sounds like these two programs are very targeted. They are aimed at people with long-term illness or disabilities to support them, helping them to overcome obstacles and successfully enter the workplace when there are difficulties. Can you briefly introduce the main value of the two programs, or what are their unique advantages?
Tia: The main idea of our two programs is to help our Australian workplaces or employers to remove barriers that people with disabilities or long-term illnesses often encounter. For example, it is said that usually one out of every five disabled people in the workplace encounters discrimination, part of which comes from their employers. We hope that by inviting more employers or more organisations to join our program, they will realise that there is a need to be more inclusive, to have a more diverse workplace and employees. We want to remove these barriers, and we also hope to help participants in our programs, such as students or job seekers, understand their strengths, recognise their career direction, and maximise their potential to make their career smoother.
Ryan: I would like to know about the institutions participating in your programs. You just mentioned that there are some large companies and government agencies. Can you give a few examples?
Tia: In fact, we have numerous participating organisations, many of which are big companies in Australia, private and public ones. In fact, they are from many different fields, including banks, universities, law firms, engineering companies. Another example is NDIA. They are all part of our programs. We even have SBS, TV stations, and zoos! IT companies as well. They are across the board. And we actually learned that there are many organisations in Australia willing to change or participate in plans about diversity or inclusion.
Ryan: It is an organisation that all walks of life participate in. It is really an eye-opener for me. I never knew that there is such a targeted program and that it could be suitable for students of different majors or job seekers. Next, I want to know a little bit about the content and approach of your programs. I want to know how your organisation supports or helps participants step by step? And what is the mentor's role in helping the participants?
Tia: That's a great question. First of all, we can start with the Stepping into Internship Program. This program has an overall program coordinator. Then, we keep contact with our interns and students. Each intern has a supervisor. We often check in with their managers in the workplace. We may email or call the interns to talk about their day and find out what they do, whether they need help or encounter any difficulties. We all understand that intern students may find it a little uneasy in a workplace when they just start the internship. We communicate by phone or email, trying our best to make them feel less lonely. We usually talk about what kind of work they actually do, such as whether their bosses or colleagues have good work arrangements. Workspace adjustment is the thing we specifically ask about. When we hand over an intern student name list to participating institutions, we mention the working conditions these students need. Some students may need some time adjustments, such as flexible office hours. We ensure that after communicating all adjustments are achieved. I personally enjoy checking in and chatting with interns because I think that makes students really happy. Some of them will stop feeling so lonely, having someone chat with them and discuss what projects they are working on. They are also happy to meet other people. We also celebrate with them and feel happy for them.
Ryan: It sounds like in addition to professional development, it is also possible to establish some relatively positive relationships with colleagues, bosses and even other people you meet at work. It is just like professional networking. Can I say so?
Tia: That's right. All our participating supervisors or managers need to attend a training called Disability Awareness and Confidence Training before the internship starts. This training helps them better understand students with disabilities, making them more confident in helping or providing some support. You also mentioned building different relationships, which is actually correct. A lot of students and their mentors in the PACE Mentoring Program develop deeper relationships because they meet every two weeks and they talk about a wide range of things. When we do the matching, we will take personal interests into consideration. We happened to have a mentor and a student who are both interested in photography, and we paired them. They are good friends now and they go out and take pictures together. So it is not just a good professional relationship in the workplace. It has become a long-term partnership, that is, like partners. Everyone learns different things from each other, and do interesting things together.
Ryan: Tia, I know that both your programs have been running for a long time. For example, the internship program has been in existence since 2005, and the PACE career counselling program started in 2013. I would like to know if you have collected any data over the past few years to reflect how these two programs can help our participants?
Tia: We have good amount of evidence that shows our two programs really help participants in different aspects. Students in our internship and career counselling programs have better career development. A survey we conducted in 2018 showed that 80% of our intern students found a job within four months after graduation. As for the career counselling PACE Mentoring plan, our 2020 survey showed that 39% of our interns successfully found a job within four months of the program, and that 41% said they were more confident in job interviews. So I think these data show that our two programs are of great help for students with disabilities or people with disabilities. 88% of our students said that they will keep contact with their mentors in the future. It is not only a professional relationship, but also more of a positive connection.
Ryan: And I think in addition to the convincing data you mentioned above, I think the possibility of establishing a long-term and healthy relationship is very important. When we produce these podcasts, we have learned that people with disabilities often need healthy relationships, which serve as one of the most important elements of living happily with a disability. Tia, you have talked a lot about some of the advantages brought by these programs from your perspective and the benefits it generates for the participants. I would like to know if there is feedback from students after participating in the program, some opinions, or some good feedback.
Tia: Of course, many of our students do different activities with their mentors during the mentoring period. For example, they conduct a mock interview and ask their mentors to help review their resumes, cover letters, etc. Mentors, as an experienced and trustworthy person, provide opinions and suggestions to their students. Thus, we receive a lot of positive feedback, and many stories that we hear are inspiring, very encouraging. Not only from interns or students, in fact, our mentors, our managers and workplace managers all have good feedback. For example, more than 90% of our supervisors and managers agree that they feel that having more diversity in the team is very helpful at work, and more than 80% of them agree that through this program, they have more confidence in managing or supporting team members with disabilities.
Ryan: Tia, we have talked a lot about your program and the experience of the participants. Now, I would like to know about other aspects from the views of workplace, companies and government departments. What about their role? In fact, I believe they can do a lot, that is, make the workplace, the recruitment process, etc. more accessible and inclusive. What can they do to support people with disabilities like us? Can you give some examples?
Tia: Of course. As employers, whether they are companies, institutions or government departments, there are actually several key areas they can consider and do to make their entire workplace environment more inclusive and accessible. I think the first step is to establish a long-term plan and consider what exactly they want to do and what their goals are. The second is to promote workplace adjustments. Workplace adjustment is to help the disabled people or people with long-term illnesses feel more comfortable in the workplace, enjoy a barrier-free workplace, which helps improve work capability or performance, in addition to making them safer at work. The third area is what we call disability confident, which means helping their team members or their management to become more inclusive!
Ryan: If employers want to learn more about how to improve their capabilities in these areas, where can they get your information?
Tia: Yes, a lot of information is available in Australia. For example, we have Australian Human Rights. They have a website that specifically deals with how employers can avoid discrimination in the recruitment process. Another example is New South Wales. New South Wales Department of Family and Community Services.This government department has a program called See The Possibilities, and their website contains all sorts of information and resources to help employers or organisations hire people with disabilities. If you are an employer, I highly recommend checking out this kind of organisations or websites. As for job seekers, a lot of information is quite handy. The Australian government has Disability Employment Services (DES), which is specifically responsible for ongoing job seeking assistance for people with disabilities and long-term illnesses. Our organisation, Australian Network on Disability (AND), provides consulting services. If you are an organisation, an employer, and you want to join our network, we welcome you to join us and become a member. We will provide consulting services to help organisations become more inclusive and more accessible.
Ryan: I believe that many listeners, their relatives and friends here would be interested in participating in these job seeking or career counselling programs. They all live in various states and territories across Australia. What are your suggestions for them to find services similar to yours? Or is your service nationwide?
Tia: Actually, that’s right. Our service is nationwide, and our programs, both the internship program and career counselling program, are available nationally. The internship agencies or the career counsellors we deal with are located in various cities and states, including Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, and even Tasmania. If you come from a remote area, our internship and mentoring programs provide remote online mentoring. You can meet with your mentor online to conduct career consultation and career counselling activities. It is not always necessary to meet face to face.
Ryan: Well, I know that you also recommended some other websites with information about disabilities and job seeking across Australia. I will collect the information later and then put it on our website. Our audience who may be interested shall refer to it and these websites. How time flies! It’s almost the end of our podcast again. I would like to thank Tia. Thank you again for taking the time to share with us so much useful information about job seeking for people with disabilities. I personally learned a lot. I will briefly summarise our discussion. First of all, there are two parts: one is the internship, which is suitable for people who are studying in college or university, and the other is career counselling program, which is suitable for anyone over the age of 18 with disabilities or long-term illnesses. No age limit. If you are interested in participating in these programs, you can go to their website AND.org.au to apply. In addition to helping our job seekers to enter the workplace, Tia also mentioned their staff, mentors, and colleagues or clients that participants meet at workplaces all obtained some opportunities in the process. That is, to establish a positive, possibly long-term, relationship with the participants that is beneficial to wellbeing or career development. This is something I think can help people with disabilities a lot and it resonates with our theme, Living well with disability. Living a good life with some good relationships can be of great help. Is there anything Tia would like to say to our listeners at the end of the podcast?
Tia: First of all, thank you, Ryan, for this opportunity to come to Speak My Language to talk about our programs. I want to add that Australia actually has a lot of information and resources for people with disabilities or long-term illnesses that will help in their job search journey and career development. I would also like to say that the popping up of such programs reflects that workplaces in Australia are in fact making progress. Many organisations participating in our programs are also committed to development towards diversity and inclusiveness, which exactly shows the progress of our society. We all hope to stimulate our greatest potential to help people with disabilities or job seekers live better in Australia.
Ryan: If you like our podcast, please visit our official website to find out more. Our website address is speakmylanugage.com.au. Please introduce this good podcast to your relatives and friends. You can also check out our social media pages Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn to learn more information. We also hope that you can share our podcasts on social media to listeners across Australia and around the world, so that they can follow our content. The Ethnic Communities Council of Queensland is proud to produce Speak My Language for Queensland. Speak My Language is funded by the Department of Social Services and co-produced by the Ethnic and Multicultural Communities’ Councils of each state and territory and Multicultural Councils. Our broadcast partners include SBS and NEMBC.
