Sweet future ahead for lolly shop assistant

Thursday, 28 February 2019

EPIC Assist (EPIC) believes that everyone deserves the opportunity to find meaningful work. Village Roadshow Theme Parks wholeheartedly supports this concept, and over the last year they have been working alongside EPIC to offer employment opportunities to people with disability.

Since starting with Charlie & the Chocolate Factory Lolly Shop at Movie World, Tayah has fallen in love with her work. While being surrounded by lollies and chocolate all day seems like anyone’s dream job, for Tayah it’s more than that – it’s the goal she has worked so hard to achieve.

“It’s a good job to work at Movie World and it’s lots of fun,” says Tayah.

“I feel supported and it’s a safe environment.”

Dean Humphreys, the General Manager of People and Culture at Village Roadshow Theme Parks, says that Tayah is the perfect fit for their team.

“Tayah has a genuine love for people that fits into our environment perfectly,” says Dean.

“Tayah has grown enormously in confidence. She has been just fantastic for us. Her growth has been unbelievable.”

“We want people to enjoy work and enjoy coming to work, and Tayah embodies that attitude,” he says.

EPIC contacted Movie World to find out whether they would be interested in employing a job seeker with disability. They were on board immediately, and Tayah started soon after.

“With the help of EPIC Assist, it was a seamless exercise to employ Tayah. They reached out to us and said, ‘we will support her along her journey,’” says Dean.

“They go way beyond to make sure their participants feel very comfortable in our workplace. I cannot speak highly enough of EPIC Assist.”

Dean is passionate about creating environments that support diversity and inclusion. He’s optimistic that corporations will continue to shift their perspective and work even harder to build diverse workforces that reflect the Australian community.

“Everybody’s life has been touched by disability in some way, and our workforce is very accepting of that. We promote a culture of acceptance, respect, and community,” says Dean.

“We focus on capabilities rather than disabilities, I think that’s the key difference for us. Everyone has abilities.”