Sean Durant - Youth Vocational Specialist

What is Your Role? I am employed as a Youth Vocational Specialist, which I’m not going to lie, is a pretty epic title!

Simply, it means I work with the young people that access headspace that are interested in employment, and help them find a job and keep it.

Where are you from? I was born in Sydney NSW, high schooled in Qeensland and spent my teenage years in Coffs Harbour NSW. I call Coffs Harbour home, as most of my family still live there, the beaches are awesome, my mates still live there and heaps of my best memories come from there.

 Where have you been? I lived in Alice Springs , NT for 5 years, where I ran a Youth Centre and worked for a charity.

I lived on Mornington Island, for 2 years, a remote Aboriginal community in QLD, and worked at the Arts Centre amongst other little projects. And finally I spent 18 months based in Cairns, QLD where I travelled and visited every remote community between Cairns and The Torres Strait Islands , working for the National Rugby League in a football development role.

Now here I am in Broome, WA @ headspace……

 What have you studied? Well, umm, I studied Psychology and Social Science for 2 years, but dropped out to do a Certificate 2 in Sport and Recreation with the National Rugby League. Yes, Random choice I know….but…

I kept getting cool jobs, but I managed to knuckle down and get a Cert 4 in Employment Services and a Cert 4 in Training and Assessment. In the Rugby League World I have pretty advanced Qualifications in Coaching and Refereeing.

 What do you enjoy about your role? In my experience, nothing compares to the positive impact on a young person’s life as that of obtaining meaningful, ongoing  and paid employment. It is an honour to be a part of that journey. J