A life changing phone call

It’s one of those exciting phone calls you don’t expect to receive – that you have been promoted!

Noongar woman, Hayley Garlett, first started working at Eastern Guruma, a civil and mining contractor in 2019 as a Gardener-Labourer. Within 18 months, she received the call that she had been promoted to a leading hand supervisory role. One of the first calls Hayley made after she received the news, was to her Mum and she was “pretty proud”.

It was through the support provided by our Plan 2day 4 2morrow program and Mentors Kristel and Alicia, that Hayley secured a position at Eastern Guruma. After showing up consistently to Fit 4 Work, our weekly jobseeker session, Hayley was able to see which jobs she was interested in and eventually apply for a position with Eastern Guruma.

“The Foundation would email through job opportunities or go through them at Fit 4 Work. I’d ask them if they could put me forward for certain jobs I was interested in,” she said.

“They helped with my resume and they put me in touch with Eastern Guruma. The Mentors were very helpful in providing a reliable support system, offering advice, care and guidance. They helped me a lot,” she said.

Fit 4 Work is run as part of our P242 program which assists Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander jobseekers into finding long-term and meaningful employment.

Weekly sessions, proudly supported by Shell, include activities aimed at improving job readiness such as facilitating connection to potential employers.

The Foundation’s mentors kept in contact with Hayley for many months after she started her new job, “to see how I was, to see if I was okay. It was great.”

Growing up in Kalgoorlie, the move to Perth was a big decision for Hayley, even though it meant that she could reach her career and personal goals, including this new step into a Leading Hand/Supervisor at Eastern Guruma.

The new role is “pretty exciting and I’m really enjoying it” she said. A typical workday for Hayley starts at 5:30am as the sun comes up.

“It’s really beautiful, I love the sun rises up there,” she said

“Working with my team is the best part of my job, they are the best people to work with. The team made it feel so welcoming,”

On reflection, the one piece of advice Hayley would give to others, is to “show up”, and “if you put your mind and heart to it and you can get anywhere.”

For more information visit the Plan 2Day 4 2morrow page.