Innovative employment providers, WCIG and Workforce Plus, have collaborated to improve how they deliver Workforce Australia’s Transition to Work (TtW) services within their respective regional areas.
A federal government initiative, TtW assists young people kin creating a positive future by offering support to engage in further education and employment.
WCIG, a community-based organisation delivering TtW within the Melbourne North West and Barwon regions, and Workforce Plus, based in regional Gippsland, have set up monthly collaborative catchups called “Co-Chats”.
Co-Chats give both organisations’ TtW teams the opportunity to share information, insights and recommendations on service deliverables, participant engagement and community connections.
From the first meeting, when both teams introduced themselves and shared their regional overviews, including youth-related issues in the local area, the synergies between both organisations and the benefits each would reap from an ongoing collaboration became evident.
Youth managers, regional managers and community engagement coordinators now use Co-Chat as a forum to discuss topics, including service planning, best practice strategies to improve performance outcomes, workshops/activities, community relationships, internal system updates and managing caseloads.
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The collaboration between WCIG and Workforce Plus stems from a long-standing relationship between both organisations’ senior leadership representatives; Mary Jankulovski, Deputy CEO, WCIG, and Bernadette O’Connor, Executive Director, Workforce Plus.
“It is great to see WCIG strengthening its relationship with Workforce Plus. There are many benefits both organisations can gain from regular collaboration and information sharing”, Ms Jankulovski said.
WCIG’s Performance and Compliance team have also attended recent workshops with Workforce Plus, including training on internal systems both organisations use.
WCIG and Workforce Plus will continue to review the Co-Chat initiative regularly to ensure that everyone who attends the monthly catchups continues to benefit.
Both organisations have also encouraged the two TtW teams to reach out to each other and keep conversations going in between the more structured monthly catchups.
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