Annie Corradin

Navitas hasn’t just impacted my life. It really has been central to my life for a long time because it’s my community. 

Hi, my name’s Annie Corradin, and I’m a Trainer Assessor at Bankstown College for Navitas Skilled Futures. 

Can you tell me when and how you came to be working with Navitas? 

I’ve been with the company for nearly 30 years. Next year will be 30 years since I started with ACL in 1995. I loved ACL and I think it was that attitude that made us very noticeable in the labour market training area, and Navitas bought out ACL in the early 2000s. 

What is one of your favourite memories working at Navitas? 

I have so many fantastic memories over the years of working with Navitas. But interestingly, the ones that really stick with you are when you take students on excursions. You get to see a different side of them and you also get a real handle on their needs in a way that you don’t when they’re in the classroom. 

So, I’ve had some beautiful moments, you know, watching 20 or so Syrian refugees waiting for the River Cat at Parramatta. They put on the music and they put their arms around each other’s shoulders and they start dancing. You know, what else do you do while you’re waiting for a ferry? Things like that. And I mean, these are people who only a few months before were walking out of their war-ravaged homes and leaving their professions, their lives, their everything behind. And there they are, happy and joyous and, you know, celebrating a nice sunny day on the Parramatta River. It’s moments like that you just never forget. 

The reason I think I have stayed so long, well, there’s a number of reasons, but the reason I still love my job is because of the personal sense of satisfaction you get from those relationships with the students. So, it’s genuine joy to be thanked for just helping someone to get a handle on a new life. It’s a pretty exciting thing. They’re so brave. Some of the students have taken an enormous risk to come here. 

They have no family support and they look at you and they need more than English from you. They need to know that everything is going to be OK. They need a welcome. And that’s what I love about my job. 

How working at Navitas made an impact on your life? 

When I started with Navitas, I was young. I married when I was a coordinator at Bankstown. I bought a house in the area. I had a couple of kids. You know, Navitas hasn’t just impacted my life. It really has been central to my life for a long time because it’s my community.  

I decided at one point that this job really was a long-term option and I made a kind of mental commitment to it in the early 2000s. And the fact is, Navitas provides me with a lot of the things that I value in life. So, it gives me enough and I really believe, about enough. So, enough time, enough responsibility, enough flexibility, enough connection, enough intellectual challenge. It’s all those things that a person values, and I found them working in this program and for this company. 

And I feel very fortunate that I’ve had that support over the years, you know, through having family, working more, working less, working close to home, working from home during COVID. I feel very blessed that working for Navitas has helped me manage my life. 

I was promoted, I guess, fairly quickly within the company. So, I was an educational coordinator two years after starting. And I’m proud of what I’ve learned over the years and I’ve been really happy to mentor some younger teachers. It’s a lovely way to earn a living. 

What are your key professional achievements during your time at Navitas? 

They’re the little things, I guess. Continuing to put your hand up and try something new. And I’ve worked on tender writing teams and a few different things where at the end of it, you’ve done a good job, you’ve given it your best shot, and it’s all about skills development, I guess, for the future. Learning materials, assessment, task writing, tender writing, training, mentoring of other teachers. You know, lots of things that I’m proud of. 

So, I’ve taught at many centres over the years from Auburn to Bankstown, Campsie, Liverpool…many roles as well over the years. Not just training and assessing. That’s the beauty of the job I think. If you put your hand up as projects become available, there’s a lot of skills development that you can take advantage of. So, it’s been an interesting ride.