Job Seekers Pumalay Mudliar, Anmol Singh, Christopher Prinze, and Michael Noble all graduated with a Certificate III in Retail in March 2020 just before the COVID-19 social distancing and lockdowns came into place.

The Certificate III in Retail is delivered in partnership with ACACIA Education & Training and is a free course for DES participants, driven by the need to upskill our Jobseekers and help them find sustainable employment in the retail sector.

Job Seeker Pumalay Mudliar was motivated by, and enjoyed the course, receiving an excellent recommendation from the assessor, which can help him secure employment in the future. Pumalay came from Fiji in 2000 with his family. He was a teacher for more than 22 years, both here and in Fiji but had to retire from the profession due to health reasons. As such, he continues to challenge himself with new opportunities such as the DES Retail Training. As an ex-teacher, he was also a great support to his fellow student classmates during the course and together they put in a lot of work to complete the short course.

“This group has done exceptionally well and have thrown themselves into the study regime and the results show that they were diligent students” said Nicollette East, Trainer at ACACIA Education & Training.

For SydWest, this was an opportunity to guide our DES participants in their study and provide a safe place (both physically and mentally) for them to come each week and participate in the program.

The short course has proven successful with the Jobseekers and a great partnership opportunity for SydWest with ACACIA Education & Training and we are proud to continue working with the college to support our clients in the future.

The Retail industry has been extremely hard-hit by COVID-19 and despite available supports from the Government to rebuild the economy of the country, our DES Jobseekers are still actively looking for work.

If you want to know more about our DES program or discuss job opportunities for our DES clients, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.