The life-changing program helping Aussie women find work

Suzanne Gearing was stuck. She was caught in a situation she never could have anticipated. 

Based in regional NSW, Suzanne was tertiary educated and had always experienced “a fairly strong career trajectory”, working her way up to becoming a director of operations at a peak body. 

But then a myriad of different stressors in her life came to a head at once.

READ MORE: Chronic illness forced Nicole to give up her small business

“[It] just totally stripped me of my confidence,” she said of that period.

At that time Suzanne also found herself in a new role – one shared by millions of Australians – that of a carer. She was looking after her husband who was ill with terminal cancer. 

READ MORE: The three words Sylvia Jeffreys says you should know before asking for a pay rise

She also needed to suddenly leave the job she’d once loved after a change in management culture. 

“So at that point I just thought I just can’t do that battle, I know that I’m in the right and I know I should, but I can’t and I completely lost confidence,” she said. 

Suzanne tried to apply for new positions but struggled in the interviews and soon found her self-confidence trapped in a downward spiral.

“I had no idea what to do,” she said of this time. 

“I just sat there and I thought, ‘I can’t be going like this but I don’t know what the answer is’.”

READ MORE: When Rachel lost her job, a chance encounter helped her find her feet

Suzanne is far from alone.

According to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), there are an estimated three million carers in Australia, and almost seven in 10 primary carers are women. 

Speaking about the role of carers, Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth said the work of carers far too often goes unacknowledged. 

“We know carers don’t always get the support they need … [despite them providing] vital support to those they care for everyday”. 

It was when Suzanne was in the midst of caring for her husband and feeling the most uncertain about what she would do next, that she stumbled across an advertisement for the FW Jobs Academy. 

The Jobs Academy was for people just like her. It’s a nationwide program that supports women who want to return to work find meaningful, flexible and secure jobs. 

Hundreds of kilometres north, in Brisbane, another woman joined the Jobs Academy after finding herself in a similar situation to Suzanne. 

READ MORE: ‘I wish someone had told me’: The crucial lesson Michala learned from a career break

Like Suzanne, Yindi Gray first heard about Jobs Academy when she stumbled across an ad for the program by chance. 

Yindi had worked as a political advisor at the state level but had left her role to be a carer for her son who has autism and her elderly mother, who has since passed away. 

When she saw the ad for Jobs Academy, she decided to apply on a whim. 

“I didn’t know what to expect … but I had made a commitment to myself and my son that we were going to risk on purpose and do hard things … and I thought, ‘What the heck? I’ll apply.’ And thankfully, I got in,” she said. 

Yindi had been through a lengthy career break while caring for her family and had lost confidence. She was frustrated with societal attitudes towards caring, specifically how it was viewed as taking a hiatus or break from work. 

“I don’t think there’s enough value placed on the wealth of knowledge and skill that comes from … being a caregiver,” she said. 

READ MORE: Four years before Noémie Fox won Olympic gold, she almost gave up

She added: “It’s been seen as, ‘Oh, well, are you able to be across all these issues?’

“I’m like, ‘Well, not sector-specific, but let me talk to you about the aged care sector. Let me talk to you about the NDIS.

“Let me talk to you about policy failures and how many politicians’ offices I’ve had to ring and throw my weight around.”

Jobs Academy was exactly what Yindi was looking for. 

She only joined the program a few months ago but already feels a lot more confident explaining her skills and career break. She also appreciated the flexible, self-paced nature of the program. 

“It makes it so much more accessible … so that has made a huge difference for me to feel that … I’m not just going to be missing out on parts because of my lack of ability to engage,” she said. 

For Suzanne, Jobs Academy also helped her to regain her confidence in job interviews. 

“It took me really no time to get my confidence back up and I ended up getting a job,” she said. 

For a daily dose of 9honey, subscribe to our newsletter here.

Suzanne now has a senior managerial role with Carers Australia. Now she is in the position of helping to advocate for other carers across the country. 

“I could not have done it without [Jobs Academy’s] help, they were the ones who got me to that point where I could get back into the workforce,” she said. 

Jobs Academy is a FW initiative supported by government funding. It’s a free, fully virtual program designed to boost women’s workforce participation and economic security. Find out more about FW Jobs Academy here.

FOLLOW US ON WHATSAPP HERE: Stay across all the latest in celebrity, lifestyle and opinion via our WhatsApp channel. No comments, no algorithm and nobody can see your private details.