Hit the ground running

Robin's family moved to Australia from South Africa, before she had a chance to finish her economics degree. She wanted to get into work quickly, so she studied Commercial Cookery and started working in a restaurant.

While working, she discovered that TAFE NSW offers degrees and the pieces then fell into place. Robin enrolled in the Bachelor of Commerce: Applied Financial Planning, and is now employed as a Client Service Coordinator at Sherlock Wealth.

Love your job - love life

“I am absolutely loving my new career; the skills I’ve learned at TAFE NSW have really enhanced my ability to perform my duties and I feel like I have found my dream job,” Robin says.

“I’ve become quite attached to my clients, they open up to me and I really want to do the best I can for them.”

Robin’s employer Jacqui Sherlock, from Sherlock Wealth, says Robin is a joy to have in the office. Her positive attitude and extensive industry knowledge mean that she’s an invaluable asset to the team.

“She brings with her up to date knowledge of what is being taught about the industry to students. She knows about best practice and as a result, has just been appointed our compliance champion.

“We love having Robin in our team. She’s happy, hard working, smart and reliable. She gets on well with the team and every client she meets. She’s a people person which is very important in our business because it’s all about people at the end of the day,” Jacqui says.

You get a teacher and a mentor

Robin is grateful to have learned from such experienced, industry relevant teachers and to have directly benefited from their real world experience.

“All of my TAFE NSW teachers had worked in the industry and had so much industry knowledge to share, one of my teachers just had this spark – you can tell that she’s lived it and knows exactly what it’s like – she could tell me first-hand what to do in real-life scenarios.”

Robin’s teacher, Sally Luxton, said Robin was a standout student and due to her positive attitude, was clearly destined for great things.

“Robin has a calming outlook on life despite the pressures of balancing work and study, so she always arrived with a smile. She adapted so quickly to our applied teaching methods so it was a natural progression for her to gain employment during her penultimate year,” Sally says.

The future is sound

Robin has chosen a trusted and stable profession, with research showing the number of people working as financial investment advisors and managers will remain consistent over the next five years.

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