Dubbo's Ethan Gordon is one of the existing staff who undertook the program which has progressed his career and skills.

"I have a good mate who I've known for years and his mother works for crown lands Dubbo, I was working in disability at the time, fresh out of high school and she sent me the role description and gave me a call and said I think you would be really good for this I want you to apply.

"I wasn't really looking for anything at the time but I had a look at the role description and felt it was such a good opportunity," Mr Gordon said.

COVID forced the pathways program to go online but Mr Gordon and his peers are now back on TAFE premises.

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"It was originally supposed to run for 15 months but obviously we are still here today, we initially had five blocks and they were all supposed to be face-to-face but then COVID come around and sort of impacted that, so this is our second block that we've had face-to-face but we did change to online but I think it's so beneficial to come back and do our final block to finish up the final units as a group,"

Mr Gordon credited a mentoring program which helped reach new heights in his department, some he said he thought would not have been possible before.

"From the program I was matched with a director and that's quite daunting because I was only new to the department and being matched with someone who has been here a while, we built a rapport from catching up and just yarning a bit.

"From there she was able to pinpoint the stuff that I was yarning about and that's what we focused on, we focused on building my skills and capability in the department and working in government and looking at opportunities that I was interested in and a project officer role came up in my team.

"It was an identified role and I'd already been working in the team and wanted to step outside my comfort zone and put my hat in the ring and I was able to go through the interview process and got a call saying I got that job."

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