Over the past 20 years Eva Burrows College has offered the Certificate III in Hospitality, in a real work environment through our partnership with Oasis Hunter in Newcastle.
Oasis Hunter provides a range of high-quality services and assistance to young people from 12 to 25 years of age, and their families; offering physical, emotional and spiritual support in a friendly environment. Since 1997, Oasis Hunter has operated the Olive Branch Café as a training program for young people to gain skills and hands-on experience in the hospitality industry. Through accreditation provided by Eva Burrows College young people undertake a Certificate III in Hospitality, developed to maximise outcome opportunities and provide access to counselling, case management, mentoring and post-training support to students.
This support enables students who may not have been successful previously in education and training achieve their personal and vocational goals.
Here are just two of their stories.
Tracy’s Learning Journey
Tracy started her journey with Oasis Hunter Alcohol and other Drugs Counselling Bridge Program. She grew up in a family that was affected by alcohol and drugs. At the time of Tracy's referral to the Bridge Program, she was sleeping rough and couch-surfing. Tracy committed to complete the 12-week AOD Bridge Journey Program which helped her to restore relationships with family members and assisted her in achieving her set goal of a family dinner, after completion of the program.
Tracy was then referred to the Hospitality training program by her AOD caseworker.
When Tracy started Hospitality Program, she was an early school leaver who had depression, anxiety, and PTSD. After the first week, Tracy started achieving competencies in Certificate III in Hospitality. As a result she started to believe that she was more capable than she had first thought. Additionally, Tracy entered into a Work Development order while undertaking the Hospitality course and successfully paid a substantial amount of pending fines.
After some coaching and guidance, Tracy completed the full qualification and this achievement has given Tracy a whole new outlook on life. Tracy missed out on her school graduation and formal, however now that she has gained her confidence, she requested a formal graduation for her Certificate III in Hospitality and Oasis Hunter is organising it! Oasis Hunter has now linked Tracy with a job agency to assist her in securing employment.
John’s Learning Journey
John had autism spectrum disorder and found it very difficult to socialise, when he enrolled in the Certificate III in Hospitality program. He struggled to interact with others, and was quiet and closed off. The trainer intentionally provided significant positive reinforcement and John quickly became an active member of the group. John became so confident that he voluntarily answered questions. John’s peers accepted him for who he was which gave him the courage to step out of his comfort zone.
The learning environment provided to John made it easy for him to express himself and get involved in the leaning process. John successfully completed the Certificate III in Hospitality and the team at Oasis Hunter assisted him to connect with a Disability employment agency. This led to employment in a local café where John is responsible for serving customers and making coffee; a significant achievement.
As the national learning centre of The Salvation Army we are honoured to serve our partners and provide quality training that empowers and encourages all for life, mission and service.
If you would like to discuss partnership opportunities to build capacity and capability in your people, and works to establish a strong learning culture to see our mission and vision realised please contact the Learning and Development team.