Civeo hosts students to explore hospitality

Recently seven students from The Clontarf Foundation’s Narrabri Academy took an excursion to Civeo’s Narrabri Village to learn more about what a career in hospitality looks like.

The Clontarf Foundation exists to improve the education, discipline, life skills, self-esteem and employment prospects of young Aboriginal men.

At the beginning of this school year – after receiving the support of the school, Department of Education and local community, Clontarf established an Academy at Narrabri High School.

Any Aboriginal male enrolled at Narrabri High School is eligible to participate in the Clontarf Academy (the Academy already has 46 students enrolled).

Clontarf uses footy and excursions such as site visits to local businesses and footy carnivals in Sydney to engage students in the program.

Full-time Clontarf staff mentor and counsel students and provide an important school-engagement mechanism for at-risk students who may otherwise not attend or have low school attendance.

Upon completing the programme, graduates are assisted with finding employment by a Specialist Employment Officer for their region.

For the last three years, Civeo has sponsored The Clontarf Foundation’s Academies throughout its area of operations in Australia.

When the Narrabri Academy began Civeo was keen to continue to help support the program as it had seen first hand the positive impact it had on communities.

As an extension of their financial support, Civeo wanted to give the Clontarf students a first hand look at what it would be like to make a career in the hospitality sector, so a site visit was set-up for students with attendance rates above 80 percent, good behaviour and a potential interest in the sector.

On arrival David Ledger, Village Manager, and Liz Clark, Community Relations and Stakeholder Manager, greeted the students.

They then received a tour of the facilities stopping to see a guest room, front office, gym, maintenance and kitchen.

After the tour students heard from Civeo staff (including from Housekeeping Supervisor, Village Manager, Guest Service Assistant, Chef and Facilities Supervisor) about their roles, their career path and the skills/knowledge necessary for each role.

Staff explained the opportunities for advancement within Civeo and stated that if the students worked hard, they could find themselves with the opportunity to work their way up through the company.

Afterwards the students enjoyed lunch while having a yarn with Civeo staff.

Overall, it was a great day for both Civeo’s staff and the students.

With over fifty percent of village staff residing in the region, Civeo also hopes it will see a few of the students working in their Narrabri or Boggabri Villages in a few years.