Tayla Winmar
Robin Walmsley and Emmalee Crispin recently sat down and had a coffee with our 2020 Gap Year student Tayla Winmar before she heads off to university in February.
Lincolns’ Gap Year program has been running since 2008 and has an amazing reputation within the community. The role involves working in our administration team and gives the student an insight into an office environment. Our former Gap Year students have gone onto a diverse range of career paths from teaching to medicine. Lincolns is proud to have played a part and a fundamental role in the development of young people over the years.
What has your experience been like transitioning from school to a corporate environment?
The first few weeks whilst I was still being trained were certainly a bit stressful and new, but nothing like I have ever experienced before. I had a very different expectation of what an office environment, and certainly an accounting firm, would be like but it was welcoming and very interesting once I had settled in.
From a development perspective, what has the Gap Year role done for you?
It has matured me as a person. Looking back at photos of myself when I first started, I can tell I was definitely shier back then. It has built my confidence up so much and definitely increased my skill set. I was hardly using computers at all before I started here but I had to quickly adjust. I’ve been given tips, even life tips from everyone who works here that will help me throughout university and the future. It has changed me into a more mature version of myself.
In high school you were involved in the Graham Farmer Foundation’s Follow the Dream program. Can you tell us a bit about it and how you got involved?
The Follow the Dream program has been running in Western Australia for 25 years by pairing kids with tutors. It supports students who aspire to complete their secondary schooling and move into tertiary schooling as well. The program also allows students to open their eyes to a huge range of post-school pathways and encourages them to dream big and achieve any and all of their goals. Throughout the school year, students can also engage in a range of extracurricular activities and broadens their horizons and builds resistance as well as developing their confidence and promotes a sense of cultural pride.
How did you get involved in the program?
I was a bit different to others. My older sister was already in high school and participating in the program. I started visiting them when I was still in primary school. I would go after school and hang out with her and get a bit of a taste of what high school was like. As soon as I hit high school, I started with Follow the Dream myself. At that age, it doesn’t really seem like a lot and you’re not too sure what it is - it’s more something fun to do after school but as time went on, we visited universities and places like that. From there, they picked me out and noticed I was doing well in school and that I had big goals and big dreams and they wanted to help put me through all of those things.
You spoke at the 2020 ACCI Women’s Leadership forum on the panel for the Communique from Young People. How did you find the experience?
It was definitely daunting and incredibly unexpected because it wasn’t a pre-planned thing. I was actually there to watch Michelle, one of our co-workers, present an accounting topic. Whilst I was there, Benita who I had met a few times before asked if I wanted to speak on the panel. Although I agreed, I was a bit worried because I didn’t have the experience of the other women on the panel. One was a construction worker who owned her own business and another managed the prison. They were all very different to me and what I could share but Benita assured me that I had my own experiences as well and a lot to contribute. It did get easier as everyone was talking because as things got more relaxed, everyone realised that we all had something fairly similar to say about the questions and their experiences as women. I found that as a young person I had different but worthwhile things to contribute. At the end it was really rewarding to listen to these other strong and successful women and also felt good that I could give someone else an insight into my own experiences.
What are your feelings about the future for young people both in rural towns and globally?
Still being young and a teenager myself, I’m not too sure. I know there is definitely going to be a lot more opportunities for global students as well as local with advances in technology. I do also think it will be a bit of a struggle as I know some people find it hard to find jobs after they finish uni. You’re told throughout high school that you need to go to uni so you can a good job but that isn’t always the case. It is definitely a competition out there once you graduate and I’m not looking forward to that! I’m just hoping that if I work hard enough, I will get what I’m chasing.
One thing I do think though is that traditional values have changed. The standard ‘go to uni, get a good job, buy a house, have kids isn’t for everyone anymore. A lot of people I talk to aren’t thinking along the lines because it either isn’t what they want or it may be unrealistic for them. I know myself as a young person that I want to get my degree first, to be a doctor and be set up before I can think of anything else. Those values have changed and I think they are just going to keep changing.
What do you think the local community could be doing more of to assist the next generation?
I know that for me, something I would have liked would have been more knowledge about life skills. I did ATAR in high school and learnt about physics and chemistry and all those fun calculus things but then I got out into the real world and I had absolutely no idea what to do with myself. I had to learn for myself and felt like I’d been thrown in the deep end because no one teaches you how to do your taxes, about doctors or even how to find those things. I personally hate booking appointments and usually avoid it so teaching us about those things especially at school would make it easier because that’s what we will need straight after we graduate.
I think also making things like using doctors and other services a bit more inviting would help. Everyone I speak to doesn’t really like making those calls so finding more ‘technologically savvy’ ways to do that would make it a lot easier for us. Apps makes things so much easier to use especially when they are something you can use in your daily life. It’s a bit unfortunate and we are all attached to our phones but they can be quite useful – I plan almost everything with my phone so being able to use them will make it easier for us.
As sad as it is that you are leaving us in February to go and study in Perth, what are you planning to study and can you share some of your goals?
I’m planning to study animal science. I’m enrolled and going to sign up for classes in the next few days. I’m hoping that year of animal science will get me into the vet course.
Over the year, one of my goals is to find somewhere to do work experience so I can get a bit more hands on experience which will help with credits towards my course.
Possibly my biggest goal would be to know that this is definitely the career path for me. I want that to be solidified in my brain that that is what I want to do in my life. Obviously I’ve been interested in it but I’m not going to know until I start studying if that’s really the right path for me. I’ve been working for a whole year and I quite enjoy fulltime work so studying again will be something I have to learn to get back into. Ultimately my end goal is to make sure that I’m doing exactly what I want to do in life.
The pressure to know can be a scary thing – in school they were always telling us that we needed to figure out what we want to do and telling us we should be going to uni. I’m letting myself ease up a little bit and telling myself that it’s okay if this isn’t for me, that I can change my mind. At the end of the year I want to be 100% in what I’ve chosen to do.
