Individual Support..................................................................................10

Rhys is supported at home

Kevin playing the drums

ACFE

Throughout the 2020-2021 financial year MiLife-Victoria delivered nine preaccredited Adult and Community Funded Education (ACFE) courses, with 40 students attending on-site, on location or online each week.

All courses have a work-based learning approach, with approximately 50% of these courses being run within an operating business, providing clients with real life work experience.

Working in a Car Detailing and Working in Retail operate within Frankston Mitsubishi and Bunnings in Hastings respectively. The Working in Administration course is held at the MiLife Head Office, and the Working with Horses course is located at The Meadows Farm in Balnarring. These courses give students the opportunity work alongside employees and gain skills and knowledge about the industry and what’s expected of them in a work environment.

MiLife-Victoria is thankful for the opportunity to continue to work with these community partners as well as Benton’s Rise and Mum’s Supporting Families in Need. Without the continued relationships with these businesses we would not be in a position to provide such valuable opportunities to our ACFE students.

As with MiLife-Victoria as a whole, ACFE faced challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, having to cease on-site and on location learning and move to online. The online courses looked a little bit different, however, they continued to keep students engaged and learning about many different industries and about the employability skills required for each.

During this time there was a focus on friendship as well as regulation skills to help with anxiety. The teachers, Sandra, Paula and Andrew provided many health and wellbeing checks, with weekly or twice weekly phone calls to students who were unable to access the online programs.

Many positives came out of the year with students learning new skills and building resilience. For some students in particular, their communication skills improved when they were online, they were more engaged and enjoyed talking to one another. This confidence was also evident when students were able to return to businesses, there was a significant improvement in the way they engaged and interacted in person with employees.

The employers are also becoming more confident with students’ abilities, providing them with more challenging tasks and giving them a greater variety of things to do when they come into work each week.

As a result of these courses we’ve already seen some students go on to enter the workforce, and we hope to see others do the same as they continue to grow, learn and develop valuable workplace skills.