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ECEC educators benefit from NSW Government’s Welcome Experience pilot
Freya Lucas
Aug 16, 2024
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Early childhood education and care (ECEC) professionals are among hundreds of essential workers and their families receiving support to relocate to regional New South Wales thanks to a successful NSW Government initiative.
Police officers, teachers, firefighters and doctors are some of the other professionals who have taken advantage of the opportunity to relocate with support from the popular Welcome Experience initiative, which has helped 511 essential workers to find a new home in the regions, settle into their communities, enrol children into school, join sporting clubs and assist with finding a job for their partner.Launched by the NSW Government in June last year, The Welcome Experience is part of the NSW Government’s $25.1 million Essential Worker Attraction Program, which aims to boost essential workforces in regional NSW.
The Welcome Experience program pilot has so far delivered the following successes:
- Close to 1,800 workers have inquired about the pilot locations - Broken Hill, Walgett, Coffs Harbour, Muswellbrook, Goulburn, Griffith, Corowa, and Bega.
- Provided a vital boost to essential services in locations, by helping 511 essential workers relocate and settle into their new communities, including 224 health workers, 84 educators and 35 NSW Police staff.
- Helped more than 227 workers move to Broken Hill, 62 to Bega, 57 to Walgett, and 38 to Muswellbrook.
The program offers a ‘concierge style’ service facilitated by a number of organisations including councils, local business chambers, not-for-profit organisations and community groups.
Originally piloted in Broken Hill, Muswellbrook, Bega, Walgett, Coffs Harbour, Corowa, Griffith and Goulburn, the program has been such a success it is now being rolled out to 52 Local Government Areas across the State.
The new areas include Orange, Dubbo, Kiama, Tumut, Kempsey, Uralla, Bourke, Yass Valley, Queanbeyan, Shoalhaven and Wagga Wagga.
Whether it is the pristine beaches of the Mid North Coast, the expansive plains of the Far-West or inland regional city living, the program’s new locations will offer a friendly helping hand to essential workers to move, settle their families, grow their career and give back to their new communities.
Police Officer Amy Loomes is one of the essential workers who has relocated with the support of The Welcome Experience, now living and working in Walgett after moving from Sydney with her family in November 2023.
The Welcome Experience helped the family settle into the local community and assisted Amy’s husband Casey to secure a local carpentry job thanks to the Partner Employment Program.
For Officer Loomes, the move has meant a better lifestyle for her family, with space for two dogs, a trampoline, a thriving veggie garden and their very own chicken coop, complete with laying hens.
“We haven’t looked back,” she said.
“Living in a close-knit regional community has given us the freedom and space to give our kids a childhood filled with fun and adventure. We tend to stress less and have more time to spend together doing the things we love.”
Since the program launched there have been more than 1,500 individual enquiries from essential workers who are considering moving or have made the move to the regions.
Find out more about The Welcome Experience here.
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