When the National Disability Insurance Scheme launched in Australia, hundreds of opportunities launched with it.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
But disability support worker Bernie Fernandez noticed one glaring issue, particularly in Katherine.
"It was an open field for support workers to come in and do some amazing work, but there were just not enough trainers to get people there," she said.
Living in a town plagued with a scarcity of frontline disability workers equipped with vital qualifications she took matters into her own hands and jumped into a training course.
"If I can get someone else to see it is not a job, it is watching people grow, it will make a world of difference to the people in Katherine living with disabilities," she said.
She is just a couple of months into a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment at the Teacher Training Academy.
She already works in the sector, side by side with young people at Equalitea - an equal opportunity cafe turning around unemployment rates for people with disabilities.
But at the end of the course she will be able to impart years of knowledge and close a visible gap.
"We are spread thin, in Katherine there are quite a few people with disabilities but not enough qualified support workers," she said.
The Certificate IV in Training and Assessment has been something Mrs Fernandez has wanted to complete for years, but it wasn't until the course became available in Katherine that she thought she could do it.
"I could have done it online, but it would have been really difficult.
"I would flounder. Talk to me about disability - easy, but learning to teach is foreign, it is a whole new set of skills."
The course is also run in Darwin, but with a full time job, a 300km journey twice a week is just not an option.
"There is such a wide open field in the disability sector - it is the fact there is so much to be done. If I can generate interest we could deliver amazing things."
She meets with the lead trainer Chris Dixon twice a week, setting herself up for a future as a teacher under a Registered Training Organisation.
"The goal for retirement is to create more opportunities for people who want to get into the disability sector, but at this point in time it is allowing me to get better results with the people I am working with.
"Chris has a reputation for going above and beyond - I wouldn't be doing this if he was not running the course."
While you're with us, you can now receive updates straight to your inbox each Friday at 6am from the Katherine Times. To make sure you're up to date with all the news, sign up here.
