My Journey to TAFE
My journey towards undertaking the Diploma in Community Service began when I was 42 years old, after I responded to an advertisement in the paper looking for people to train as prison officers. After 20 years working in the travel industry, I was looking for a career change and the job description appealed to my sense of social justice, adventure, and curiosity. I successfully applied and completed six weeks' intensive training, then started work as a prison officer in the men’s prison system.
During my career with Corrections Victoria, I worked in various sectors of the prison system, in locations across Victoria. This included in maximum, medium and minimum-security rated prisons, and involved male, female and transgender prisoners, and including high profile offenders.
I was interested in engaging with the prisoners in a meaningful way and with purpose, instead of in a custodial capacity - so after a couple of years I moved from the prison officer role into the role of an Assessment Officer (AO). This role required interviewing prisoners (in person or via Zoom) throughout the Victorian prison system who had received a sentence of six months or more. The purpose of the interview was to prepare a risk assessment report (together with various collateral documents from court, GP’s etc) that informed case management plans, parole consideration and level of supervision required within the community.
At the beginning of 2023, I accepted a voluntary early retirement redundancy package and left Corrections Victoria after almost 20 years of continued service.
I then applied to Melbourne Polytech (mostly because of the proximity of the TAFE to home - I can walk to/from) and started the Diploma in Community Service course in July 2023. I had been fearful of returning to school at my age because I was worried about using technology and my ability to manage the workload!! However, I was encouraged by friends to ‘give it a go’ (what’s the worst that can happen??).
I enjoy the stimulation of the classroom, hearing other students’ life experiences and ways of doing things has been awesome. Although over the years I have accrued a lot of life skills and practical ‘on the job’ training and knowledge, I found ‘you don’t know what you don’t know’ (or sometimes you don’t know what you know!) - so learning the theory behind why we do what we do has been stimulating and beneficial.
I’m not sure where this will lead me, but I’m pleased I took a leap of faith to study and I’m proud of my work so far - you are never too old to learn, grow and develop and I have enjoyed the experience.
In the last eight years of my career with Corrections Victoria, I was an Assessment and Transition Coordinator (ATC). This position required placement at a prison location, and I chose to work in women’s prisons. This involved working with women in the last 12 months of their sentence, supporting them to transition from prison into the community. Activities included building networks within the fields of mental health, housing, drug & alcohol, child protection, NDIS and a range of other services - to reduce their risk of reoffending and the possibility of returning to prison. Women leaving prison can face many barriers, stigmas and challenges finding housing and employment, applying for the return of their children, navigating their way through bureaucracy, while coping with day-to-day living pressures. They can struggle to create new social and community connections, especially within a society that can harshly ostracise them for having a criminal history.
During my time in these roles, I attended numerous training programs, including motivational interviewing, family violence, sexual abuse, depression, suicide / self-harm and thus took advantage of career opportunities and secondments because I was keen to learn and improve my skills.
At the beginning of 2023, I accepted a voluntary early retirement redundancy package and left Corrections Victoria after almost 20 years of continued service.
I then applied to Melbourne Polytech (mostly because of the proximity of the TAFE to home - I can walk to/from) and started the Diploma in Community Service course in July 2023. I had been fearful of returning to school at my age because I was worried about using technology and my ability to manage the workload!! However, I was encouraged by friends to ‘give it a go’ (what’s the worst that can happen??).
I enjoy the stimulation of the classroom, hearing other students’ life experiences and ways of doing things has been awesome. Although over the years I have accrued a lot of life skills and practical ‘on the job’ training and knowledge, I found ‘you don’t know what you don’t know’ (or sometimes you don’t know what you know!) - so learning the theory behind why we do what we do has been stimulating and beneficial.
I’m not sure where this will lead me, but I’m pleased I took a leap of faith to study and I’m proud of my work so far - you are never too old to learn, grow and develop and I have enjoyed the experience.
About Community Work Australia
From setting educational standards through to determining an ethical practice framework, we support community workers in every sphere of their work life.
Set up over 50 years ago, we exist to ensure that the community benefits from an ethical and well-qualified community work labour force.