“COVID hit and I lost all my confidence”: The out-of-work women finding their feet

It was the middle of COVID and one Queensland mum was in a bind – she had lost her job, felt stuck and was unsure how to retrain.

Rachel Vance, a Townsville-based mum, had immigrated to Australia as a teenager. She had always worked but lacked the confidence to further her education.

When COVID hit Australia, she had an administrative role for an engineering consulting company. She had to quit her job however when all the business’s branches relocated to Brisbane.

All of a sudden, Vance found herself out of paid work, looking after her teenage children and unsure how to expand her employment prospects.

“COVID hit and I lost all my confidence,” Vance recalled.

Vance was far from alone. According to research by the Grattan Institute, the COVID recession hit Australian women much harder than men. Almost eight per cent of women lost their jobs, compared to four per cent of men. Women also shouldered a much greater increase in unpaid work, such as caring for children.

Vance was feeling disheartened about her career prospects when, one day by chance, an advertisement for the FW Jobs Academy popped up on TV. It immediately piqued her interest.

The Jobs Academy was for people just like her – it’s a nationwide program that supports women who want to return to work with training, coaching and employer connections.

“I was blown away by being in that community, having been so isolated for so long.”

Hundreds of kilometres south, on the Gold Coast, another woman found herself in a similar bind to Vance. Her name was Liz.

Like Vance, Liz applied for the Jobs Academy after struggling to re-enter the paid workforce. She had earlier left her job as a senior brand manager to raise her young family.

When she looked to rejoin the workforce she described feeling “pretty unemployable” as she faced rejection after rejection. Since signing up for the FW Jobs Academy, however, she has found permanent casual work.

Liz said the program taught practical and useful skills, such as how to better sell her previous experience.

She also loved some of its more intangible aspects, such as being surrounded by so many women in a similar situation.

“I was blown away by being in that community, having been so isolated for so long to just be back in such a warm and encouraging community was really good for my self-esteem, my positivity and willingness to give it a go,” she said.

For Vance, the program was a “safe space”.

She described it as a “safe platform for women at any age” and said it helped her “gain confidence”.

It spurred her to apply for higher education studies. She has now been accepted into a Bachelor of Engineering at James Cook University.

“FW played a role in my confidence to go forward, and be optimistic about going into this field,” she said.

“There is a long road but these small steps are big steps on their own.”