Morley man honoured for work helping people with disabilities gain employment

Ahmed Selim won the National Disability Services WA Disability Support Awards’ Excellence in Improving Employment Opportunities Award at a gala event at Crown Perth last month.

Mr Selim, who migrated to Perth from Egypt 10 years ago, was an employment engagement consultant at the Mirrabooka-based employment services organisation, atWork Australia.

He moved into a marketing role in November 2016.

Mr Selim said winning the award was his first after he was nominated on two previous occasions.

“It is something big for me because Australia is my second country and English is my second language to achieve and get this award,” he said.

“I started as a case manager which is just meeting jobseekers and update job plans and just get over their barrier and get them job ready, create a resume and cover letters.”

Mr Selim said the common barriers for people with disabilities were having no work experience, language, lack of qualifications and not having a driver’s license.

“In their mind, they think their disability is a barrier to employment,” he said.

“They think they cannot do the job, so our job is just to change the idea of this.

“I speak Arabic so I use it for Arabic employers to employ Arabic job seekers, which makes them confident and happy at work.”

Mr Selim said employment difficulties have improved over time.

“At the end of the day, once they are employed and get the job; they are over the moon,” he said.