Become a PACE mentor
If your organisation is participating in the program, people within your organisation who want to make a difference can sign up to be mentors to people with disability who are looking for work.
Positive Action towards Career Engagement (PACE) mentoring program, matches up mentors who have advice and wisdom to share, with people with disability, based on location, industry, background and other factors.
If you would like to become a PACE mentor, please ensure you are logged in and apply via the link below. If you don’t have login credentials or need further support, please contact us
Apply to become a PACE mentor.
Key dates:
- Member EOIs close: Friday, 31st May 2024
- Mentor applications deadline: end of June 2024
- Mentor training: July 2024
- Program Launch: August 2024
- Mid-program check-in: October 2024
- Closing Event: December 2024
Please contact PACE Program Lead Tia Kwan at tia.kwan@ausdn.org.au or 0370 323 523 if you require flexibility around any deadlines.
Small committment, big result
In six-to-eight meetings over 16 weeks, the mentor can give advice and coaching on starting a career, writing a CV, job interview techniques, understanding how a business works and defining a career path.
This a great way for your people to gain increased disability confidence as well as leadership skills, while increasing the prospects of the jobseeker.
At the end of the program we host a closing event at which all the participants in the program can come together and share their experiences.
Nominate your organisation
We run the program twice a year with an Autumn cohort from April to August, and a Spring cohort from August to December
To express your interest for your organisation to participate in the PACE Mentoring Program, please contact PACE Program Lead Tia Kwan at tia.kwan@ausdn.org.au or 0370 323 523, or schedule a meeting with our team.
Deadline for member organisations to express their interest:
- PACE Spring cohort: end of May
- PACE Autumn cohort: end of December
Please note: Only representatives of our member organisations can express interest and nominate for the organisations to participate in the program. For individuals who would like to be a PACE Mentor, please contact your organisation.
If you are a jobseeker who would like to find a mentor, you can find out more about the PACE program and apply to be mentored.
Ready to step up?
We’re constantly on the look out for people who want to be mentors, so why not volunteer to be a mentor?
Lendlease show how it’s done.
Stepping Into Internship: Host an intern
One of our most successful initiatives is our Stepping Into Internships program.
This is where we match suitable university students and recent graduates with disability to member organisation’s who are building their disability confidence and looking to provide a paid internship.
We run two cohorts of the program each year (Winter and Summer) and provide our members and interns support and training throughout the process.
Read our internship information for employers
Ready to host an intern
Matching will take place in February for the Winter cohort and August for the Summer cohort. Please complete your application within the deadline.
If your organisation is ready to host an intern, follow these steps: –
- Complete the Position Description template. You will need to attach this to complete the application. Here is a sample Position Description to help you.
- Save the Position Description using the file name convention ‘Position Description – <Organisation Name> <Role Title>’ It is important to keep the file name and not shorten it.
- You will need to login to access the application. If you don’t have a login please email applications@AusDN.org.au.
- Complete the online application form and submit. Read our internship information for employees or contact applications@AusDN.org.au or call 1300 363 645 for further support.
Apply to be a Stepping Into host
Everyone’s a winner
The employer then hosts the student or recent graduate as an intern in their winter or summer semester breaks. The employer gets practical experience of working with a person with disability, helping them build their disability confidence, while the intern gets practical experience and confidence in the workplace.
A proven record of success
We’ve been bringing employers and interns together like this since 2005, and our record stands for itself: our interns are more likely to be employed than students without a disability.
See how the NSW Department of Customer Service benefits from internships.
Increase your talent pool
Many organisations unintentionally exclude people with disability from their pool of available talent, simply because they’re not making it easy to employ them.
Break down the barriers
For a person with disability, unconscious biases and barriers to entry are abound. Your organisation may be bristling with these without you being aware of it. Here are some common examples:
- your website may be inaccessible
- your staff may not have the disability confidence they need
- your recruiters may not know they need to provide a wheelchair-accessible room or an Auslan interpreter
- your job description might list a driver’s licence as an essential requirement even though it’s not actually needed for the role.
To help you find out, we do a deep dive into how you and your recruitment agencies work together. We identify and remove any unintended barriers and make it easier for people with disability to approach you as potential employer.
Small changes, big difference
Often a few small changes can make a massive difference, and open up a pool of talent that was previously denied to you.
Become a member to benefit from our recruitment process deep dive.
See how Australia Post removed unintended barriers.