It’s no secret that we are extremely proud of our entire Belmont community. So it should be no surprise that we like to highlight the successes of our locals, especially the young ones that will one day be leading this community of ours.
One of our LEA school-based trainees here at Belmont Oasis Leisure Centre has recently had a large amount of success that we’d love to share with you.
Desiree is one of our LEA school-based trainees who has recently completed a Certificate III in Sports and Recreation. Many members will have seen her smiling face in and around the facility, and may even know her as ‘Des’.
During 2022 Desiree was recognised for her incredible efforts throughout the community and within the workplace.
In the past year Desiree achieved the following:
- Won NMTAFE WA Ambassador Award for School-based Apprentice of the Year Award
- Won LEA School-based trainee of the year award
- Captain of the East Fremantle Sharks football team
- Captain of the Thornlie Junior Football Club
- Captain of the Belmont City College Football Team
- Sports Person of the Year at school
- Visual Arts Award at school
- Completing her school-based traineeship with LEA
Desiree has accomplished all of this at the age of 17 years old! We were lucky enough to sit and talk to Desiree about all of her latest success.
Desiree described the past few months as “Yeah, it’s pretty crazy. To get the WA Training Awards that was a crazy experience, and then to be awarded the LEA Trainee of the Year was even better!”.
Throughout her traineeship, Desiree was trained and experienced first hand a range of roles, such as lifeguarding, customer service, swim teaching and sports coaching.
When asked how she originally found the traineeship, Desiree explained “I think it came through school. (My) school is just across the road from our site…I was also looking because I didn’t want to do ATAR, and I just thought I wanted more from Year 11 and 12. Then I found this traineeship and I applied and I got it.”
BlueFit have joined forces with Leisure Employment Australia (LEA) to provide leading training and experience, within the leisure and aquatics industry, to the youth of Australia.
The school-based traineeship program is designed to encourage young people to start within the aquatics and leisure industry early. The program itself is designed to educate youth through hands-on experiences.
Belmont trainee Desiree, described her learning style as “I love to learn hands on. I kind of just drift away if it is PowerPoints among PowerPoints. Getting to go out into the workplace and do stuff is good.” During our conversation, Desiree expressed her gratitude for the traineeship, “I liked getting to know all the other trainees, making new friends, and getting a day off school to do work placement. I think lifeguarding is a cool job. I’d never thought of it as a job or working and now that I get to do it, it’s pretty cool. Also getting to work with all the kids. Getting customer service experience and learning how to talk to people. I also liked doing the work. We would come in every school holidays and do our TAFE work together.”
“I know how to do first aid and everything now. I am able to use those skills, out in the real world if I need to. I have a few times just to help out. Dealing with kids, it’s good to learn how to do that…Thinking back to when I first started, I didn’t know how to deal with difficult customers, but now I have got it all down pat.” said Desiree.
When we asked Desiree if she had any advice for others considering a school-based traineeship, she said “I’d say to just do it. Because it’s good to. You’re 16/17 years old, and you might not do ATAR but it’s just another great way to. There’s so many pathways from it, so many good things. If I hadn’t done it I wouldn’t be working here. Plus you get lots of different opportunities here, lots of friends and lots of life skills too….I think it’s very worth it!”
It seems as though the gratitude for the program also extends both ways, with Desiree’s Traineeship Manager, Ella explaining “We gave the award to Des, because she had worked a record number of hours over her traineeship. That was a huge achievement itself. And the fact that she’s working in every single department we have here except in the gym… And I’m sure if the opportunity arose, she’d probably go in there too. Doing all of her roles exceptionally well. Not just coming up and going home, but actually putting in the effort when she’s here. Building rapport with everyone she works with and being a genuinely great person… that’s just some of the reasons”. Overall we couldn’t be happier to have Desiree on our team serving the local community. We are very proud of her and all of her incredible achievements.
Congratulations Desiree!
We cannot wait to see what she accomplishes next here at Belmont Oasis!
To find out more information about our school-based traineeships, visit the Leisure Employment Australia website.
To apply, simply click here or ask one of our friendly staff at reception today!
