Young people all across Australia have been negatively impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, whether human, social or economic the crisis has posed significant challenges to overcome.

Our members and the students they support are no exception, having had to hastily manage the disruption and find ways to pivot.
Students completing year 11/12 VET Cert II IDT faced unique and complex challenges to completing their mandatory work placement and creative solutions needed to be devised.

Enter came global company Amazon Web Services and Amazon Educated who, upon hearing about the challenges Covid-19 and physical distance posed to these IT students, generated a career immersion activity to encourage the future workforce to understand the skills and requirements to work in a cutting-edge IT environment.

With so much talk today about young people needing resilience, problem solving and creativity skills to secure gainful employment, this Virtual Workplace opportunity provided by AWS is a wonderful case study for students.

The innovative project provided an incredible opportunity for students across NSW and importantly our regional, rural and remote students to gain a true understanding of their potential career in Information and Digital Technology.

In the largest event of its kind to be staged in NSW, 50 volunteers from Amazon Web Services and AWS Educate, along with teachers and support staff from the WLN provided a full week of Virtual Work Placements to 275 students from 36 high schools across NSW.

The 16 Members of the WLN were proud to be able to offer this opportunity to the youth in NSW, the program gave each participant an opportunity to develop skills that transcend boarders. Students engaged with mentors across the globe giving them a true international prospective of the opportunities available in this industry. Thank you to AWS and School Industry Partnership the schools and the WLN for supporting our youth.