Hamish

Hamish began our service in January 2024 and wanted to explore what a great job would look like for him and to achieve his driver’s licence. He started with our career development services to help him identify a career pathway based on what he was interested in and good at. He identified landscaping and horticulture and joined the Youth Options Garden Squad to test whether this was a pathway for him. He also began our Drive Me driving mentoring to achieve his independence. Having a driver’s licence also broadens his choice of employment as having one is often a requirement of more skilled and secure work.

Growing a Career with Youth Options Garden Squad

Hamish joined the squad for 12 months to develop his confidence and skills in horticulture and landscaping and his employability skills. Our highly skilled mentor with extensive gardening experience worked with Hamish in a way that worked for him.

Through Garden Squad, Hamish was able to access real world industry projects to develop his capacity with our partnership with the City of Adelaide Horticulture team. Through more than ten verge garden projects across the Adelaide CBD, he developed his skills in: work health and safety, plant identification, plant propagation, soil preparation, irrigation installation, seasonal planting, as well as lawn and plant maintenance with hedge trimming, lawn mowing, and weeding. Hamish also developed his employability skills in working with others, organisation, and problem-solving which employers value as much as technical skills.

Hamish realised he wanted a career path in horticulture and not just casual work. We helped him identify that a traineeship would be a great way to achieve this goal because on completion he would receive a certificate III in horticulture as an industry recognised qualification. Longer term, this will give him eligibility for a greater variety of employment with better pay and conditions than causal unqualified work.

To achieve this goal Hamish needed to work on his numeracy. He showed real leadership and commitment in his own success by working on this independently until he reached the required standard.

Achieving Employment with a Traineeship

In January 2025, Hamish began a traineeship with a reputable council in their Horticulture team as an employment of Maxima through their group training organisation. The result is Hamish is being paid to study alongside the training he is receiving with the horticulture team.

We are so proud of Hamish and are excited for his working future.