Campaspe Cohuna Local Learning and Employment Network executive officer Anne Trickey has made the decision to hang up her hat after dedicating more than 12 years to the organisation.
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Eager to create positive outcomes for youths and school leavers, Ms Trickey took on the hands-on role as CCLLEN’s executive officer in June 2010.
Her role was vast and multifaceted.
It entailed advocating for and facilitating youth expos, events and programs, figuring out the logistics surrounding expos, events and programs, formulating relationships with organisations, outreaching into schools, determining contracts with government departments and businesses, writing and submitting grant applications, drafting reports and determining budget and funding responsibilities.
Now after more than a decade with CCLLEN, she has made the decision to retire and let somebody else take the reins.
Retiring was something that had been on her mind for quite some time but there had never been a more opportune moment than now.
“I think it’s really good timing for me to step back because not only are there exciting opportunities coming up but the organisation has just signed a new three-year contract with the Department of Education, which is like a clean slate, in a way,” Ms Trickey said.
“It’s time for fresh ideas, fresh input and someone with fresh energy to come in and start implementing some new ideas that maybe I hadn't thought of.
“The organisation is in a great position to hand on to someone else and I'm really, really excited to see the new concepts that they come up with.”
CCLLEN has announced that Ms Trickey will be handing over the title and responsibilities of executive officer to Jane Reid, an existing employee of the organisation.
Ms Trickey did not have any input into who would be her replacement; however, she was pleased when she heard they would be hiring Ms Reid, as she had already been with the organisation for more than three years.
“Jane is already across how the organisation runs and operates. Having someone who was familiar with the organisation made the handover much simpler,” she said.
Ms Trickey has been working in the youth pathways and employment space for more than 25 years, which just goes to show her passion for helping young people discover what they want in life.
She said she was proud of all that the organisation had achieved in her time, including facilitating the Murray River Culinary Challenge, youth consultation, L2P program, the Careers Expo, the Youth Expo and the VET awards.
One of Ms Trickey’s more notable achievements was her involvement in the launch of the School Friendly Business program, which encouraged businesses across Campaspe and Cohuna to make a practical and positive impact on students.
In its first year, the School Friendly Business campaign had recruited and signed on 40 businesses that were interested in partnering with schools.
Remarkably, just 10 years later, it now has 304 participating businesses.
But the initiative that Ms Trickey is proudest of is the Campaspe Youth Partnerships program, which aims to improve student engagement in education.
“That program started off as a little pilot project in Kyabram in 2012 with about 18 months worth of funding but it is still going today and it is now in every secondary school in Campaspe,” she said.
“The government funding ran out after the 18 months but we managed to find other sources of funding and it has led to some wonderful collaborative efforts between schools and agencies.
“That’s probably the thing I’m proudest of, because we started with something very small and it’s grown very big, and not only that but it's been sustainable for more than 10 years.”
However, don’t be fooled into thinking Ms Trickey’s role has been an easy one.
The pandemic and subsequent online schooling forced CCLLEN to recalibrate and rethink about how it could best support young people.
“COVID-19 was one of the more challenging moments,” Ms Trickey said.
“It was really hard for our organisation and it was really hard for businesses to keep that engagement with schools in creating activities and opportunities for them but we came up with some brilliant ideas and I think the kids in particular just adapted really quickly.
“We adjusted and managed to do mock employment interviews entirely online with businesses interviewing students, and the students were then given feedback about how they went.”
Despite the pandemic continuously throwing curve balls at the education industry, Ms Trickey remains optimistic about the next crop of students to enter the workforce.
“I think that the young people that we’ve got coming through have got so much promise and have so much to offer,” she said.
“They put a lot of pressure on themselves to think that they must have everything figured out in their final year of schooling.
“I invite anyone who would like to meet these young people to get involved with CCLLEN because you will see that we are in good hands.”
Ms Trickey’s tremendous commitment to improving the lives of others is to be commended and admired.
As to her next chapter of life, she said she hoped to travel but her first priority would be to bask in her newfound freedom.
“I’m feeling excited and happy but I know I’m going to be a little bit sad about it because I’ve put a lot of myself into this place for quite some time now,” she said.
“I'm on the board of another organisation and there's plenty of work to be done there so I will be putting some energy into that and then I'll see what happens after that but for now, I'm just gonna relax and enjoy the time off.”
Ms Trickey’s last day with CCLLEN will be on Wednesday, December 21.
One thing is for certain, she will definitely be missed.