Learning Everyday - Niru's Volunteer Experience
Photo: Nirupama Amarakoon working remotely on an infographic for Mt Barker Council
A few weeks ago we bid farewell to our Connecting Up Inc. volunteer Niru. Niru volunteered with us for 144 hours from 13 September 2019 - 9 September 2020 and we are excited to report has moved into full time paid work - Congratulations Niru! We called this article 'Learning Everyday' because one of Niru's many great traits is a dedication to learning about and sharing new tech tools and training concepts with us and we asked Niru in her exit interview if she had any thoughts to share with the other volunteers.
"On the journey of finding work and building a career in Adelaide, I started volunteering at Connecting Up to expand my skills in Customer Service and Administration. Connecting Up provided me with the best insight into the actual working culture in Australia, and gave me a better understanding of handling inbound and outbound calls as well as phone etiquette in an office environment.
Connecting Up also provided me with hands-on experience in a range of different technologies and software tools and I was able to use many of the applications in Microsoft Office 365 during that time. My favorite part was utilising data visualisation tool Microsoft Power BI and design tool Canva to present SAcommunity website data in an infographic, showing the browsing patterns for community services within a council." Niru explained.
This was the beginning of the first council statistics project, which Niru initated by manually compiling and presenting data on Mt Barker Council, before volunteer Stathis Avramis further developed, built and documented this project into the current format of the Council Statistics program. Niru also utilised her studies in Certificate IV Training and Assessment to present informative 40 minute topics on subjects useful for other volunteers looking to transition into employment including 'How to work effectively with others - How to identify issues, problems, and conflicts encountered in the workplace and manage them' and 'Working effectively with others - How to respect cultural and linguistic differences in the personal values and beliefs of the coworkers' on the 21st and 28th February 2020 respectively, with Connecting Up volunteers valuing these insights and discussions.
Bahar Forghani, Impact Measurement Officer, Customer Engagement - Infoxchange and Niru's mentor
"Starting my new career in the customer service industry, I realized the value of good telephone call practice and scripting that I have completed throughout my time volunteering in the SAcommunity service at Connecting Up with my fellow Volunteers. Each phone call made to assist a service and update valuable information on their behalf also helped with my phone call technique - I was very glad of this in my job interview!
I encourage everyone to follow best practices on offer, learn as much as possible from your Connecting Up Staff Mentor - Thank you Bahar Forghani (Program Officer, Infoxchange) who was my staff mentor for your wonderful advice - and from your colleagues (other staff, the coordinator and volunteers), and take the opportunity to learn and use the tech tools available to you during your time with Connecting Up."
