I Felt Super Supported by AFL SportsReady
This interview is with Alexandra Taranto (Aley), who struggled to decide on a career path after high school. She discovered traineeships and completed an administration traineeship with AFL SportsReady, gaining industry experience and new skills. Aley had a positive experience with AFL SportsReady, feeling super supported.
Many young people struggle to decide what pathway to take after high school. This was the experience of AFL SportsReady Trainee Alexandra Taranto, who recently completed an administration traineeship in our very own AFLSR head office, where she also studied for a Certificate III in Business.
“When I left high school I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I knew that I wanted to help people, so I initially went to university to study nursing. I quickly found out that nursing wasn’t for me and switched to forensic science only to discover it was also not the career path for me.
My cousin had just completed a traineeship, and before she had I had no idea traineeships were even a thing. I saw how much she enjoyed it, and that she was able to continue employment afterwards… I applied and the rest is history.”
Throughout her, traineeship Aley has had many opportunities to gain new skills.
“Some of my tasks included doing enrolments, completions, downloading data from government systems, contacting and helping trainees and running inductions.”
Traineeships are a great way for young people to experience what it is like in a range of different industries. For many, it can be extremely daunting to decide which career pathway you want to go down after high school, especially having no industry experience.
“A major benefit of doing a traineeship was that I was able to get experience working in areas I never had before. I didn’t have any business experience before my traineeship and now I have a whole host of different options available to me to work in.”
The support networks Aley had during her traineeship were an important part of her positive experience.
“I felt super supported by AFL SportsReady as my employer and as my host employer. My supervisors were awesome and taught me so much and went above and beyond to teach me anything I wanted to learn.
Another important support network during my traineeship was my field officer and my educator.”
Since completing her traineeship Aley has continued her employment in the national administration team. Where she is working part-time as an administration officer with AFL SportsReady.
Recently, Aley commenced study full-time for a Diploma of Elite Sports Business through the Carlton College of Sport.
“This year, I plan to continue studying and working part time, but my overall goal now is to work in the sporting industry and hopefully one day work for an AFL club.”
AFL SportsReady began a journey of providing quality job opportunities and launching the careers of thousands of young Australians.
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Images: Aley at Victoria Park, AFL SportsReady Head Office, Victoria.
This series includes current and former trainees demonstrating the benefits of the traineeship program, and how this pathway allows them to follow their passions.
This article is part of our partnership with the National Careers Institute (NCI) to highlight the real benefits of Vocational Education and Training (VET)
