Become a PACE mentor or host a Stepping Into Intern

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.

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

To express your interest in nominating your organisation to participate in the PACE Mentoring Program, please submit the form below and our team will reach out to you shortly.

Deadline for member organisations to express their interest:

  • PACE Spring cohort: end of May
  • PACE Autumn cohort: end of November

Please note: this form is for the representatives of our member organisations to use only. For professionals 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.

PACE

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.

Read case study


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: – 

  1. Complete the Position Description template. You will need to attach this to complete the application.  Here is a sample Position Description to help you.   
  2. 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
  3. You will need to login to access the application. If you don’t have a login please email applications@AusDN.org.au.
  4. 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.

Read case study

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.

Read case study