Gabriel’s Story

Gabriel is a quiet and dignified person who came to MTC Australia’s Fairfield centre to join the Skills for Education and Employment (SEE) program.

The SEE program helps people who are not confident in their reading, writing and computer skills and Gabriel had quite a unique reason for wanting to improve his abilities in those areas. He was desperate to travel to Sudan to see his family for the first time in 20 years. But he faced some big barriers to being able to achieve that dream.

During the pandemic, Gabriel’s passport and photo identification expired and, as a Permanent Resident, he had not been able to renew these key documents. He especially struggled with the language and complexity of the passport form.

MTC Senior Trainer Kathryn got to work with Gabriel and seven face-to-face appointments in the Sydney CBD passport office, six delays or rejections to his application, four tries to complete the passport form correctly, three sets of passport approved photos, three months of phone calls and emails back and forth, and two character references from the MTC team later, Gabriel received his travel document!

Gabriel could not hide his bright smile when he came straight back to MTC after his seventh appointment to show us his new Passport. He appreciated the time, effort and determination from MTC.

“MTC made me feel like a person again … important and thankful to go to see my family after very long time. I never forget my teachers Kathryn and Dayana and what they do,” Gabriel said

In 2024, Gabriel returned to MTC Fairfield with a renewed determination to learn. His goal was to achieve a certificate and make his family proud. During his studies, Gabriel contacted Kathryn again as he was having difficulties with a new phone and SIM card.

He had gone to the phone shop to no avail as he struggled to converse with the employees and could not figure out what to do. Kathryn helped Gabriel contact his phone provider and follow the steps to reset his phone and register the new SIM card. Gabriel was immensely relieved and joked that it was not seven appointments on this occasion.

Gabriel shares that MTC are the best helpers for him and says that his future is looking better from the effort of his Trainers.

The barriers and challenges faced by Gabriel became a catalyst for an innovative idea at MTC Australia and so the MTC Participant Support Officer (PSO) program was born. Gabriel asked Trainer Kathryn Salman for support with the process and she could see that there was a great need for assistance with life skills such as this one in our communities. Our thanks to Gabriel for being one of the first and continued participants to access this innovation to provide extra support for the people who train with MTC.