Jinx is pursuing a career she is passionate about as a Disability Support Worker

Managing work, studies and personal commitments with compassion

Jinx was passionate about joining the Disability Sector as a Support Worker. She was seeking an education provider that offered flexibility. She says BRACE was the best choice, “They provide flexibility with course fee payments. They let me pay in easy affordable instalments.

Setting a clear goal

Jinx says her goal was to become a Disability Youth Worker. BRACE provides support and guidance to the best courses to achieve each person’s goals. “The staff were extremely supportive, and they helped with all my questions.”

Jinx enrolled and completed two courses, a Certificate IV in Disability and Certificate IV in Community Services.

“If I needed support with anything, even when we went online, I could contact them. The trainer was good at explaining things and if we did have questions, we could email them.”

Jinx says it was important that trainers were open communication. “I was seeking trainers that didn’t judge and treated me and other students with respect. I didn’t want to feel like a number.”

While not her legal name, Jinx is her preferred name and it was important to her that people identify her as Jinx.  

At one point, the students had to wear name tags. Jinx says that they had not put her preferred name on the name tag. “I went to the front desk and told them my name is Jinx and they changed it straight away without question. They listened to me about absolutely everything.”

A different learning experience

Jinx had studied before she came to BRACE. She has completed a Warehouse Operations Certificate III with another provider. “Completely different to BRACE. BRACE is honestly the best experience I have ever had with courses.”

She finished her Community Services course in 2020 and is currently studying disability. She wants to be a Youth Worker specialising as a therapist for children with autism.

A passion for helping people with disability

Jinx says her brother drives her passion for helping people with disability. “He has autism. One of the biggest challenges he faced was finding a therapist who was affordable or free. I want to be that for kids who come from low-income families. Where I come from there are a lot of kids who are low income with special needs and just need someone to talk to.”

Jinx says she was not stressed with the workload because she had support. “From helping me find a placement to giving me experience working with people across the whole spectrum of disabilities, BRACE gave me the resources I needed.”

She says that while she already had experience with autism, studying with BRACE has enriched her view. “BRACE has given me a deeper understanding of people’s needs and there were things that I would never have thought of, that they would have needs for. Like being able to choose what they want to do, how to take their help, even just daily life, to eat a certain meal or if they have a preference for certain textures.”

BRACE gave Jinx support while she was on placement as well. Checking in to see if she was going alright and answering any questions she had.

Managing study workload with support

Jinx says it was important she felt supported. She was experiencing challenges and needed support managing her workload. Jinx says her trainer didn’t put unrealistic expectations on her. “She was so understanding.”

Jinx says that the trainer was understanding of all the students. There were a lot of students who were parents, and the trainer would schedule meetings around when the parents could make the meetings.

BRACE tailors study to suit the students. Jinx says you wouldn’t get that at TAFE, “It’s an accepting environment. It doesn’t feel like a robotic system.”

Getting into the industry

Jinx recently landed a job doing what she enjoys – working in a travel club for people with disabilities.

She helps take people to Ballarat or Bathurst for a couple of days. “The people I look after have severe disabilities and can’t be left for more than two minutes. Some are nonverbal and have behavioural issues.”

She’s very understanding of these issues, seeing their root in frustration at not being understood. “If I couldn’t speak, I would get frustrated too.”

The work is challenging but the skills she learned at BRACE have taught her how to advocate for her clients.

Jinx takes a holistic approach to caring for her clients. “I let them take an extra hour to get ready so that they can feel comfortable in what they’re wearing that day. BRACE taught me patience and understanding and asking the questions I didn’t think to ask.”

Jinx is making connections with the people she works with, and they are making connections with her. “One lady wants to keep coming back because she knew I’d be on the trip.”

The support and patience that Jinx experienced at BRACE has enriched her studies so that she can now pass that understanding on to her clients and help empower them in their everyday lives.

Jinx has completed two courses at BRACE – a Certificate IV in Disability and Certificate IV in Community Services.

To find out more about studying with BRACE contact us today.