The VIS Performance Lifestyle (PL) Team will be celebrating all things careers during the upcoming National Careers Week (NCW) 2019.
NCW aims to celebrate careers and career development and from 13 – 19 May, we will be highlighting the career and education pathways of VIS athletes and staff.
The PL Team supports the personal and professional development of elite VIS athletes with career, educational and professional development services; it includes Performance Lifestyle Manager Leesa Gallard, Performance Lifestyle Advisers Andy Farrow & Sara Heasly, and Sports Psychologist Mark Spargo.
They support athletes in a holistic manner to assist the athlete to achieve ‘success in sport and life.’
Services provided by the PL team centre around the total wellbeing of the athlete and may involve supporting the dual career. Career and educational pathways and personal development are all integral to this.
During National Careers week, the PL Team will be holding mini workshops for VIS athletes on developing resumes. These workshops will be held in the athlete lounge and athletes can drop past for a quick chat re CV tips or stay and work on their CV:
- Monday 13 May between 10am – 11am
- Tuesday 14 May between 10am – 11am
- Wednesday 15 May between 4.30pm – 5.30pm
- Thursday 16 May between 4.30pm – 5.30pm
The basic philosophy of the VIS is embodied in our motto “Success in Sport and Life”. Athletes are encouraged to adopt a balanced approach to sporting excellence by developing their life skills, education and career prospects along with their sport.
Each year, the VIS present the William Angliss Personal Excellence Award at the VIS’ night of nights – the Award of Excellence. This Award goes to the athlete who has achieved success in their studies, career ambitions or work setting, whilst managing their sporting pursuits.
In 2018, table tennis star Milly Tapper was presented the William Angliss Personal Excellence Award for her academic achievements whilst competing at the highest level of her sport of table tennis.
Milly, who created history as the first Australian to compete in the Olympic and Paralympic Games at Rio 2016, won Australia’s first table tennis Commonwealth Games gold medal on the Gold Coast in the women’s singles TT6-10.
In 2018, Milly also completed a Diploma of Conveyancing and was heavily involved in the VIS Community Programs as part of VIS Tours and the BeFit.BeWell. Schools program (funded by School Sport Victoria). In her spare time, Milly works as the Office Manager at Coolabah Law Chambers and is a friendly face on VIS Reception.
“There is no number that can be put on (how important the institute is),” she said. “The VIS is my family and have been such a vital part in providing me with a high-performance environment and team to be the best possible athlete I can be.
“They provide me with every inch of confidence, from when results are achieved, and they are there when the result doesn't go my way. The have steered me into a direction that will enable me to be an athlete as well as develop skills in and out of sport that in the future when my competitive career is over, I will transition into life with an even bigger smile.”
