CTA trainer leading by example

If your job is to help others find work that they love, it’s important to practice what you preach.

That is certainly the case for Kylie Fulton, CTA Trainer at Navitas Skilled Futures, who says she wouldn’t want to be doing anything else.

And with an established career background in event management, she is also living proof that changing jobs later in life can be a rewarding and fulfilling life experience.

“I’m extremely passionate about assisting jobseekers to achieve their goals realistically, and listening to what they want, to what their career paths and life experience will lead them to,” Kylie says.

“As CTA trainers we know not everybody likes to go to their jobs every day of the week. We know it’s not always a fairytale ending.

“But we want people to be in jobs they want to be in. We say to our participants, ‘We want you to be in a job until you retire, whether that’s in one year’s time, or 10 years down the track.”

Kylie left a successful career in event management to develop a program for jobseekers that focused on confidence and self-care, along with the essential job-readiness skills. When she discovered the Career Transition Assistance program she recognized the synergy and became a CTA trainer. After one year at Navitas Skilled Futures she has never looked back, helping dozens of people grow in confidence, develop job-seeking skills and direction, and ultimately achieve their goals.

The CTA is an eight-week course supporting unemployed people aged over 45 of all backgrounds and walks of life, who want to improve technical and soft skills as well as digital literacy to get back into employment.

Kylie says her classes have participants from all backgrounds and walks of life, from full-time parents returning to the workforce, to chefs and lawyers, business people and administrators, even people who have never used a computer before. Many have tried applying for jobs on their own without success and sometimes feel like giving up.

Kylie says this course not only gives people the tools and skills they need to create successful job application letters and resumes, but the resilience and motivation to stay on track, and confidence and direction to find the right employer, upskill, or pursue something they never thought possible but always wanted to try.

One such participant, Valerie Solman, had been in hospitality all her working life, owning three businesses and working in cafes. But she left work to become a full-time carer for 14 years to her husband, who had Multiple Sclerosis, and her father-in-law, who had dementia. When she tried to re-enter the workforce she says she couldn’t get a job in hospitality, despite working in the industry for 30 years.

“When Valerie came in she had been looking for jobs in hospitality but it was hard to get a job because of her age. She said, ‘That’s my history; that’s all I know’,” Kylie said.

“I said to her, ‘What’s your passion? What do you love to do?’ And that’s when she told me about her husband and her father-in-law. And you could just see it when she was talking about aged care, the knowledge and the passion she had. And that’s what we draw on. We draw on peoples’ passion.”

Valerie said the CTA course was life changing.

“The moment I told Kylie I was interested in going into aged care, she sent me all the stuff I needed about aged care and home care, she even got me an interview. She helped me create a perfect resume that got me the job I’ve got now.

“Once my new resume went up on LinkedIn I had the companies calling me for interviews. I’m still getting calls today!”

Valerie is now working full-time in a job she loves.

“I don’t think I’d have got here if it hadn’t been for me doing that course. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Kylie was amazing; she gives you the strength. Everything you do, Kylie is there with you. She gets just as excited as us. When I got the job I was crying, she was crying!”

Kylie said seeing people become more confident and positive, taking care of themselves and valuing their worth was one of the most rewarding parts of her job. Seeing them find work in a job that they love is icing on the cake.

“I get emails and phone calls from people telling me when they get a job. It’s the best news,” Kylie said.

“I had one participant recently who, when he first came in, was not getting any responses whatsoever and he was very back up against the wall. By the time he finished, he actually had three job offers and didn’t know which one to choose. What more could you ask for?”

If you would like to participate in CTA, please talk to your jobactive provider. If you are not currently registered with jobactive, you can find a local provider here.

Submit this contact form or call us at 02 9749 3330 (NSW) or 02 9749 3331 (ACT) for more details about the program. 

The Career Transition Assistance (CTA) program is funded by the Australian Government.