Angliss celebrates ten year collaboration with Charcoal Lane
William Angliss Institute is celebrating working for ten years with social enterprise restaurant Charcoal Lane to train Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth.
Over the ten years, more than 175 students have trained at Charcoal Lane where the menu offers native Australian flavours inspired by the land that produced them.
William Angliss Institute’s training has achieved double Victoria’s average VET completion rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students (23.9%) with a 48% average completion rate. 148 young people who have taken part in the program have gone on to paid work or higher education placement.
Charcoal Lane was developed in partnership with Victorian Aboriginal Health Service, Mission Australia and the Institute, with the aim of providing leadership and mentoring to help Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people achieve their potential and gain long-term independence, while creating a skilled workforce for the hospitality industry.
“This program is focused on quality - not quantity - offering nationally accredited hospitality training, along with assistance to develop personal resources and resilience, to assist students to transition to sustainable mainstream employment,” said Karon Hepner, National Training Manager, William Angliss Institute.
Student Leeann Nguyen joined Charcoal Lane’s Certificate II program with no work experience, low literacy and numeracy skills.
Though she struggled with study, she utilised the student support program to obtain her qualification. Leeann says she “caught the training bug” then enrolled in the Institute’s Certificate III program. Leeann’s exceptional achievements resulted in her becoming a finalist in the Victorian Training Awards in 2014. Leeann said, “Since I was a kid, I wanted to work for Qantas and now I work in the Qantas Lounge. Charcoal Lane and William Angliss Institute gave me the confidence to do whatever I put my mind to. Now I can share my story with young Aboriginal people and help them.”
One of Australia’s first such hospitality programs, and possibly the longest-running restaurant of its kind in the world, it pays students industry-standard trainee wages while they work towards formal qualifications.
William Angliss Institute also does significant work throughout Australia to deliver accredited training programs that have been contextualised to meet the learning needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people.
