AMES students Erminio Yap and Htun Htun during their work experience placement the Grand Mecure Hotel.

For Erminio Yap and Htun Htun, students from AMES West Hub, getting up at 5.30am was just the start of their challenging day during work experience at the Accor operated Swanston Grand Mercure Hotel in Melbourne.

Erminio, 19, from East Timor, and Htun Htun, 33, from Myanmar, have very different stories to tell, but both joined their SLPET Employment Readiness programs with the same goal – to find employment.

Htun, has some experience working in hotels gained from his time in Malaysia after fleeing the refugee camp on the Thai border.

Erminio arrived in Australia with his mother after she married a local man and has been lucky enough to be offered some casual weekend work with his new uncle, but otherwise has no experience.

Both students elected to have work experience in the hospitality industry, as room attendants. Employment Liaison Counsellor Paul Harrip identified that both were keen to work, so placed them with Geoff Adams, Executive Housekeeper at the Swanston Grand Mercure Hotel in Melbourne.

Both students spent two weeks working from 8.00am to 4.00pm with a trainer, learning how to clean hotel rooms. During the training Geoff observed that students were working extremely well, and even though winter time in the industry is slow, he couldn’t let these two excellent workers “slip through the cracks”.

Both students have been offered permanent part time work with a minimum of 25 hours per week.

“It’s a hard job, but I got my first pay yesterday and it is all worth it,” Erminio said.

The Swanston Grand Mercure and AMES have a partnership where two students each term can complete placements in the Housekeeping department.