IT isn’t every day that a group of students from Port Adelaide’s Empowering Youth program has a run in with the Australian Federal Police, but that’s exactly what happened this week, only they were not in trouble.

In fact, it was quite the opposite, as the 13 students from four schools and the Matchworks employment agency took part in a leadership day.

The Empowering Youth program encourages students who are enrolled in a flexible learning option to stay connected with their education and to take responsibility for themselves and others by making positive decisions in relation to their health, lifestyle and career path.

The goal of the program is to provide students with a set of tools used by the Port Adelaide Football Club players to help them make positive choices and become more physically active and socially engaged within the community.

It was the first time the Adelaide Airport Leadership Day had been held and it was the brainchild of the airport’s Aviation Commercial Manager Scott Snodgrass.

“As a sponsor, we got an opportunity to be involved with Power Community Limited on a RAAF leadership day and after being to a couple of them I thought we have enough going on at the airport and we’ve got facilities here to be able to host groups in,” Mr Snodgrass told portadelaidefc.com.au.

“I thought that maybe we could get the wider airport community together to show off the diversity of jobs on offer and basically how many interesting things are available to them once they finish school.

“This is the first time we’ve done anything like this - we’ve had other groups through on work experience and things like that but this is the first full-day with full engagement from the airport community.

It’s been great seeing the students engaged for the whole day and as the day has gone by they’ve opened up more and more.”

During the day students were toured around the airport, including onto the airport apron and they met and heard from Airside Operations, Aviation Rescue fire fighters, Australian Federal Police bomb unit and sniffer dogs and ISS security staff.

They also got to engage with Power players Jack Watts and Hamish Hartlett and discuss the important role the airport plays for the football club.

It was an eye-opening experience for some of the students, who had never been to the airport before, and provided them with the chance to see just how many different roles are on offer there.

The airport is the single largest employer base in South Australia, directly employing close to 9,000 people directly and more than 9,000 indirectly.

Mr Snodgrass felt the students enjoyed the day and realised the job opportunities available to them in the expanding facility.

“A success for us isn’t necessarily seeing one of the students get a job at the airport, but if it sparks their imagination and they start looking around at the outside community and realise how many interesting jobs are out there then that’s a win for us,” he said.

“We may not be able to measure that but as long as we can continue partnering with Port Adelaide and their programs are successful then we’ll see that as a success.”

Teacher Sophie Pyromallis from Underdale High School said even she didn’t realise how many jobs were on offer at the airport.

She said it was a great day, and she hoped her students would go back to school and tell others about what they had learned.

“It gives them hope that there are real jobs out there when they are so fixated that when you leave school you go into a job rather than a field of specialisation,” Ms Pyromallis said.

“A place like the airport offers opportunities where they can see they’re not going to be a child care worker but I can come and work here in horticulture, I can be an electrician, I can be in IT and that’s what’s really great.

“I never thought that there would be so many opportunities out there and I think it makes it real for the students that there is something out there for them.”

Ms Pyromallis said the Empowering Youth Program had had a positive impact on her students.

“I noticed that the Empowering Youth program actually made such a difference in them actually engaging in school,” she said.

“Also we’re a very multicultural school so working with the broader community including Port Adelaide shows them that we are all one, it doesn’t matter what colour skin they are, and that has been really fantastic as well.”

Power Community Limited’s Youth Programs Coordinator Kate Brereton hoped to be able to continue the partnership with Adelaide Airport and to return annually with students for subsequent leadership days.

“This is the first time we have run a leadership day for these students,” she said. 

“Teachers were invited to select three students who had participated in the program and who had shown leadership during and post the program within the school and in regards to their learning. 

“We will most definitely be hoping to run this day once a year but that will be determined by the future partnership with Adelaide Airport.”

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