Hard school start delivers knock-out success
19 August 2008
MatchWorks consultant Van Ngo still vividly remembers the day she started school in Australia. An 11 year-old refugee from Vietnam, who spoke no English; she stood in the grounds of Footscray Primary and watched her father walk away.
“I didn’t even know the basic ABC or 1,2,3,’’ the Sunshine-based staff member recounts 16 years later. “I was so, so scared. I was terrified.’’
To make matters worse, an English-speaking Vietnamese classmate came over and demanded to know if Van had brought her lunch. She hadn’t. In Vietnam, the children had never taken lunch to school.
“I had no lunch, no money and no English at all … I was hungry and, yes, I felt pretty alone,’’ she recalls.
But it was experiences such as these, together with being part of a large, “complicated” family, that made the MatchWorks senior employment consultant - and now industry award winner – the success she is today. Van’s extraordinary resilience and determination to succeed was apparent just months after arriving in the country.
Moved from Footscray Primary to an ESL (English as Second Language) school just two weeks after starting, Van thought the move reflected a perceived lack of intelligence and ability.
“I really believed they thought there must be something was wrong with me, that I couldn’t learn,’’ she said.
Determined to turn the situation around, the little girl studied furiously and made it her mission to watch as many English films as she could.In a sign of things to come, she completed the year-long language course in just two months and returned to Footscray Primary – with her lunch in her bag - able to speak English.She went on to successfully complete her VCE, gain a university accounting degree and work with community groups; sometimes as a translator.
In 2005 Van joined MatchWorks and has enjoyed remarkable success in working with long-term unemployed jobseekers and people with significant barriers to employment, including language difficulties. Honoured but humbled by her new status as Employment Consultant of the Year in the prestigious National Employment Services Association Excellence Awards, Van said her ability to understand and assist jobseekers also stemmed from being part of a large family. The youngest of 11 children, Van said she had spent a lot of time helping her siblings - particularly those who were single parents - sort through bureaucratic and financial issues.
Manager of MatchWorks Sunshine site, Wes Hutchesson, said Van’s dedication and enthusiasm was infectious.
“We work in a difficult and sometimes confronting environment and I have rarely received anything but client praise and gratitude for the assistance provided by Van,” Wes said. Van said she loved her job because she was able to “make a difference’’.
“That I can find people work – even if they have never worked before – is a good feeling,’’ she said. “To think I may have helped change someone’s life and make it better, that makes me pretty happy.’’