Around 23,000 young people in Australia have their world turned upside down by a close family member's cancer, or their own diagnosis each year. Of young cancer patients surveyed by Canteen, less than half have high confidence of achieving their education goals and even fewer – less than a third – have high confidence of achieving their employment goals. We want to change that.
Cancer treatment or caring for family members with cancer can cause significant disruptions to young people’s education or career which in turn have potentially long-lasting impacts on their social and emotional wellbeing.
The Education and Career Service (ECS) helps young people impacted by cancer aged 12 - 25 stay connected to study or work. It’s a strengths-based service that helps young people identify their vocational goals and values, followed by individualised support plans to help them achieve their education or career milestones.
ECS support is currently delivered one-to-one and can be run in person, over the phone or via video conference. We also offer a range of online resources and digital workshops, where young people can engage in peer learning to support their career development goals.
Canteen’s Career consultants can help with:
keeping up with or taking a break from work or study
job readiness skills such as preparing for work, writing a resume and job interview preparation.
reassessing study and/or career aspirations
helping young people make informed decisions when it comes to finding a meaningful career.
empowering young people to engage in professional development and lifelong learning.
using self-exploration/reflection to enable skills and strengths identification.
providing up-to-date labour market information and assisting in developing future-proof career pathways.
Evaluation of the Education and Career Service
100%
young people impacted by cancer were satisfied with the service
93%
say they got the support they needed from the service
92%
felt more hopeful and positive about their future education and career
ECS participant
“They have been a great help in getting me closer to figuring out what I may want to do in life and for it to not be so daunting.”