Good afternoon Rotarians & Guests

January is District 9800 vocational service month and key strategic areas of focus include mentoring programs and job ready support programs .

It is interesting to read in our Rotary Melbourne  book “ a history of service “ that  50 years ago  John Habersberger ( father of Peter  ) was Vocational Service Committee Chairman who established a standing committee to assist with the problems of graduate employment .   In early 1976 as a result of their initiatives 27 students were placed into vocational jobs one day per week for 10 weeks .

During the recession of the early 90s unemployment was high. As a member of the Vocational Services Committee I was invited to attend a meeting at a church hall in Malvern attended by around 80 people who had been made redundant and struggling to find employment. The group that had formed were called “JOFA“ the job seeking over forties association .

It was very rewarding to adapt materials from my own career transition & outplacement business and with a grant of $1,000.00 from the Club we were able to run a series of seminars with comprehensive job search  programs and wonderful mentors from the Club including Doug Tolliday, Tony Keep and Max Barr.

Many of the participants gained permanent, part-time or contract employment.

Further seminars followed and JOFA received a grant of $270,000 from the Department of Education , Employment & Training for their continuation.

We encouraged District 9800 to take up the program and it had such success, that on 10 July1994 , Rotary Australia with the support of the ABC launched the program across the nation as “Employ Australia‘

When we read our club history it is so rewarding to reflect on the success of so many projects that arose from a “seed of an idea”.

Peter Dakin

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