Katlyn Craig is a school-based trainee from Katherine Senior High School who has recently completed her Cert II in Business working while working at NT Friendship & Support Inc in Katherine.
Katlyn moved to Katherine from her home town of Alice Springs where she lived on one of the town camps. Katlyn describes what its like to live, study and work in two worlds- one world of proud Aboriginal culture, heritage and duties, and a Western world with sometimes competing expectations. Co-workers say of Katlyn she has been able to complete this certification in the face of much adversity.
'She is a real credit to herself and a true role model for our local young people; with hard work, support and determination you can achieve your goals.'- Stephanie Ransome, CEO
Katlyn applied for the traineeship with NT Friendship & Support for extremely personal reasons, her brother is autistic and has a sensory disorder. Katlyn is a real advocate for training within the disability sector stating:
I always encourage my peers to strive for better and to do school based traineeship as it is the best opportunity.... I find that you gain more from it, a lot of people I know have said they’d rather drop out of school and work so I like to mention doing a school based traineeship as an option. I tell them every day that education is most important for them to succeed. During my traineeship at NT friendship and support- along with the help of my amazing supervisor Karen Buss- I can confidently say I’ve become more organised, I use my time more efficiently and have learnt to work independently, this hasn’t only benefited me at work but at school and home as well as I like to try to teach these things to my brothers.
Katlyn has used her traineeship as a means to get on the path to higher education so that she can support young people with disability in education. Having such solid future goals and juggling the two worlds in which she sits, her home life and the white schooling/ education system, she has shown that these initial foundation steps will pave the way to future aboriginal disability education and learning.
We couldn't be prouder, Katlyn.