By Casey Neill
Find a passion and set goals were the top pieces of advice handed to Greater Dandenong and Casey students on Tuesday 6 September.
The annual Lunch with the Winners at Sandown Racecourse featured Dr Jordan Nguyen as guest speaker, ‘winners’ Quintin Whitehead, Bianca Santos and Guillaume Nyakaboyi, and futurist Marcus Barber.
SEBN manager Sandra George said the event’s aim was to show students the many pathways to employment.
“We hope the guest speakers will inspire you, as next generation of leaders, to follow your dreams,” she said.
The event was a partnership between SEBN and South East Local and Learning Employment Network (SELLEN).
Ms George told students that key employability attributes included communication skills, getting along with others, a positive attitude, motivation, and being well-presented.
“Leaving school with Year 12 or Certificate III gives you the best stepping stone to employment,” she said.
“The employment market out here is very positive.
“Manufacturing is still the largest employer, and it is growing out here.
“Today, manufacturing is sophisticated, it requires you to take your brain to it and it requires diverse skills.”
Dr Nguyen was “pretty lost through high school” and struggled through his first semester of electrical engineering studies at university.
Spending a day unable to move after hitting his head in a pool gave him a new direction.
“I wondered what would have happened if I couldn’t walk,” he said.
“Suddenly, I had purpose in my life.”
Dr Nguyen decided to harness the power of the mind and created a wheelchair that tapped into electrical signals from the brain.
Veterinary science inspired the chair’s horse-like vision that steers it around obstacles.
He’s now delving into how virtual reality could help people with disabilities.
“Do what inspires you,” he said.
“If you don’t know where you’re wanting to go in life, how are you going to get there?
“If I have a goal, I’ll constantly move towards it.”
Mr Whitehead didn’t grow up dreaming of becoming the quality and improvement manager at AG Coombs.
He didn’t know what he wanted to do when he was at school, but found a job and put his hand up for every opportunity offered to progress through the company.
“Successful for me is having a family I’m proud of and a job that I enjoy going to every day,” he said.
Ms Santos, 22, felt pressure from her parents to attend uni but found it wasn’t for her.
She dropped out, got a tattoo apprenticeship and started volunteering for gaming events.
Through a gamers festival at Chisholm she received a job at the institute, has completed two certificates and is onto a third.
“If you surround yourself with the things that you love, even if you don’t know what you’re going to do in the future, that’s okay,” she said.
Mr Nyakaboyi was born in conflict-ravaged Burundi, Africa.
He completed primary school in a refugee camp in Tanzania. He arrived in Australia six years ago, and is studying chemical engineering and pharmaceutical science at Monash University.
“Whatever you want to do, go and do it with passion and power and talent, and you will get there,” he said.
Mr Barber ran through the bare essentials all students in the room would need for their future career, regardless of the industry.
He urged them to collaborate and create with someone they didn’t know each week, keep learning from anyone at any time on any subject, to manage their time and to believe in themselves.
“If you’re worried about what other people think of you, your friends are doing the exact same thing, which means no one’s thinking about you. They’re thinking about themselves,” he said.
Mr Barber said they would need to know how to analyse and adapt, to persist when things got hard or boring, to problem-solve, and to enact.
“You must be able to DO. All of that makes no difference unless you do give yourself a target and do work towards it,” he said.
