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This week NSW Health Pathology welcomed a special group of 21 trainees – the first ever intake targeting marginalised and disadvantaged groups.

The new trainees attend­ed an ori­en­ta­tion ses­sion at West­mead on Mon­day and are now head­ing off to our col­lec­tion cen­tres, labs and admin­is­tra­tion offices across Syd­ney and region­al NSW.

NSW Health Pathol­o­gy Chief Exec­u­tive Vanes­sa Janis­sen said she was thrilled to wel­come the 21 new trainees to the organisation.

“It’s excep­tion­al­ly excit­ing for us to be part of this project, pro­vid­ing a vital first step into a reward­ing career in the health sec­tor for these young peo­ple,” Ms Janis­sen said.

“I’m also proud to be sign­ing a Mem­o­ran­dum of Under­stand­ing with Real Futures, a First Nations employ­ment and train­ing firm, that will be pro­vid­ing the sup­port need­ed to ensure these trainee­ships are a suc­cess and con­tin­ue into the future.”

One of our new trainees, Kevin McMaugh, will work in spec­i­men reception.

“It’s going to be very excit­ing; I can’t wait to see what comes of it,” he said.

“It’s going to give me some­thing to look for­ward to every day. I can go to work think­ing about ‘what can I learn today’. It’s going to give me a career.”

For Mari­am Wadie, the trainee­ship rep­re­sents a new start in the fas­ci­nat­ing world of forensics.

“I think that this will lead me into a new career, and it will give me a lot of per­son­al growth,” she said.

“I see myself work­ing in this field and stay­ing in forensics.”

Tia Peachey-Gay­lor said she was look­ing for­ward to the oppor­tu­ni­ties the trainee­ship will provide.

“When I heard that I got the trainee­ship, I was excit­ed, hap­py and proud of myself,” she said.

“It’s some­thing I can get more expe­ri­ence from and move forward.”

The trainee pro­gram is fund­ed as part of the NSW Government’s com­mit­ment to employ an addi­tion­al 1000 appren­tices and trainees across the state.

NSW Health Pathol­o­gy recog­nis­es the chal­lenges that job­seek­ers from Abo­rig­i­nal and Tor­res Strait Islander com­mu­ni­ties or those liv­ing with a dis­abil­i­ty face. The trainee­ships aim to assist those from mar­gin­alised and dis­ad­van­taged com­mu­ni­ties into a path­way towards long-term careers with NSW Health Pathology.

We’ll be ensur­ing our trainees have the social and cul­tur­al sup­port they need, togeth­er with the for­mal train­ing and edu­ca­tion required to com­plete their traineeships.

NSW Health Pathology this week signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with First Nations training and jobs provider, Real Futures, to foster career opportunities and improve health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

NSW Health Pathol­o­gy Chief Exec­u­tive Vanes­sa Janis­sen joined Real Futures Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer Chris­tian­na Cartwright to sign the MOU, for­mal­is­ing the part­ner­ship between the two organisations.

“It’s about forg­ing stronger con­nec­tions with Abo­rig­i­nal and Tor­res Strait Islander peo­ples,” Vanes­sa Janis­sen said at the signing.

“We will com­mit to iden­ti­fy­ing poten­tial employ­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties with­in NSW Health Pathol­o­gy and encour­age First Nations peo­ple to apply.

“I’m excit­ed that with­in our newest cohort of NSW Health Pathol­o­gy trainees, 10 per cent iden­ti­fy as Aboriginal.”

Ms Janis­sen said the MOU was also about improv­ing NSW Health Pathology’s ser­vices for First Nations people.

“We will lis­ten to Abo­rig­i­nal and Tor­res Strait Islander peo­ples to bet­ter under­stand their needs and work to adapt our prac­tices to deliv­er bet­ter health outcomes.

“We will put Abo­rig­i­nal and Tor­res Strait Islander peo­ple at the cen­tre of all that we do,” Ms Janis­sen said.

Real Futures is cer­ti­fied as a major­i­ty Abo­rig­i­nal owned, con­trolled, and man­aged train­ing and employ­ment company.

CEO Chris­tian­na Cartwright said her organ­i­sa­tion looks for­ward to work­ing with NSW Health Pathol­o­gy to ensure job can­di­dates get the sup­port they need.

“We will pro­vide men­tor­ing and assis­tance for suc­cess­ful can­di­dates for the first six months of their employ­ment with NSW Health Pathol­o­gy,” she said.

“That includes sup­port for ongo­ing atten­dance and to help them over­come any bar­ri­ers to per­form­ing their job.

“Our aim is to upskill and empow­er First Nations peo­ple to gain mean­ing­ful work, become an asset to their work­place and role mod­els for others.”

NSW Health Pathology’s Asso­ciate Direc­tor, Abo­rig­i­nal Part­ner­ships and Inclu­sion, Kevin Stan­ley wel­comed the new part­ner­ship with Real Futures.

“Our MoU and for­malised part­ner­ship with Real Futures solid­i­fies our com­mit­ment to con­tin­ue work that has been under­way for more than six months,” he said.

“Con­nect­ing with com­mu­ni­ty at a grass roots lev­el is a key fac­tor in the suc­cess of any Abo­rig­i­nal works and our part­ner­ship with Real Futures is an amaz­ing start to estab­lish­ing such valu­able connections.”