Meet Naomi Gill

Careers Advisor and VET Coordinator

Paid work first started as a teenager by being paid to babysit teachers' kids or umpire basketball games at the local stadium which helped to pass the time before and after my game, and before the bus would take me back to the boarding house on a Friday night.

After high school, I worked in woolsheds as a rouse-about, in hospitality at the local golf club and the local hotel until I went overseas to England to complete a gap year. I worked 6 days per week in a school office, in classes and in the boarding house in a school just outside of London. I would have every Friday off. On these days in the summer seasons, I would walk to the outskirts of the town and work the day berry picking. This was some of the hardest farm work I had ever done! I was lucky to experience working with a huge range of migrant workers who would travel from across Europe to work and try and create a better future for their families. Spending time with these wonderful people really showed me the power of education. This was a life lesson to see that many of these people who did not have the same opportunity in life, work so physically hard to make a better life for their children to get them to school and how valued this was.

On my return from travelling the world I settled into university studies at CSU in Bathurst, working again in hospitality and as a rouse-about to pay the bills. I became a swim instructor and spent summers travelling rural NSW teaching children how to swim or working on grain silos during harvest season. Being an entrepreneur, I would also take up opportunities to do end of financial year stock counts for agricultural supply companies. Technology has limited these opportunities now but counting every nut, bolt, tie, ear tag and everything else in the shop in one night, was quiet a process that developed patience and persistent. 

Before finishing my teaching degree, I discovered an opportunity that enabled me to start teaching casual days as a teacher at a local high school.  I jumped at any casual teaching opportunity to get experience. I was then successful in gaining my first teaching appointment in PDHPE. I took on boarding house duties at this school as an extra role. 

After 8 years of teaching, I completed a qualification in Conveyancing Law at Macquarie University whilst teaching.

Next, I was offered an opportunity to work in the Careers Advising role for a long service replacement. I loved it and was very fortunate to gain a role Careers Advising and have been doing this for the last 6 years.  This has resulted in further study in a Graduate Certificate of Careers Development. The careers' role, and a very persuasive colleague, gave me an opportunity to link back into my hospitality experience and training, so I was able to update my VET training and teach VET in schools in the last 4 years which is a wonderful area to teach in. I get the wonderful privilege of working with young people around their hopes and dreams whilst continuing to encourage lifelong learning regardless of life and career pathways.