Spark Partnerships – Sponsor a learner
Sponsor a young person. Grow your next great team member.
When you sponsor a Spark learner, you help a young person gain a nationally recognised qualification in events, business or leadership, and you get something back that’s hard to buy: a motivated young person learning inside your business, a stronger team of mentors, and a real story of what your business gives back.
Potential shouldn’t depend on the ability to pay
Some young people on the Coast are ready to move forward but can’t get to the education that would help them do it. Cost, confidence, a small network or a poor fit with traditional school all get in the way. Event Spark, Business Spark and Spark Leadership are our small-cohort programs, delivered by certified Learning Coaches, where learners build real skills on real projects and finish with a qualification, a portfolio and the confidence to take their next step.
A sponsorship covers a learner’s place. We deliver the program, and our community partner CABA Progressive, a Sunshine Coast not-for-profit, holds and administers the funds. Your contribution goes to a named place, not a vague cause, and you hear how it went.
Three partners, one clear job each
A Spark Partnership is delivered by three organisations working together, so a sponsor always knows who holds the money, who teaches, and who puts the learner into real work.
CABA Progressive
The community not-for-profit that raises and administers Spark funds, reports on where they go, and matches learners to businesses through the Work Experience Connector.
cabaprogressive.org.au →Learnivation
The registered training organisation (RTO 45570) that delivers Event Spark, Business Spark and Spark Leadership with certified Learning Coaches, and provides the sponsor coaching, feedback reports and manager workshops.
You are hereCultivate the Chaos
Our work immersion partner. Cultivate the Chaos runs the live events, festivals and projects where Spark learners work on real briefs with real audiences, including the STUFFit Student Film Festival.
cultivatethechaos.com.au →
Mentor a learner, grow a potential future employee
Businesses across the Coast, from sole traders to large employers, need people, and need them to fit. Sponsoring a Spark learner gives you a low-risk way to grow one. Your learner spends structured, supervised time in your workplace, you get to see how they work, and they get to see what your industry looks like from the inside. If it’s a fit, you’ve found your next hire before the job ad. If it isn’t, you’ve still helped a young person find their direction, and your team has learned how to coach and delegate along the way.
Test a future role
Try out the role you’ve been meaning to create, with a learner who is there to learn it.
Fresh energy and ideas
Learners bring current skills, curiosity and a different view of your customers.
Grow your own mentors
The staff who host a learner practise coaching, delegation and feedback, a first step toward leadership development for them.
Sponsor half a place, a full place, or a cohort
Every tier funds a young person’s education. The more you put in, the more your business gets back in placement time, mentoring and profile. Final figures depend on the program and are confirmed in writing before payment.
- Short work placement in your business, up to 4 weeks
- Free feedback report on your business
- One coaching session with our lead learning coach
- Mentor briefing for your hosting staff
- Named sponsor and a social post
- Cohort impact summary
- Up to 6 months’ work placement with a committed workplace
- Free feedback report on your business
- One coaching session with our lead learning coach
- A seat in the manager workshop series
- Mentor briefing for your hosting staff
- Learner-produced broadcast interview about your business
- Logo on the Spark page, social posts, your learner’s story
- Up to 6 months’ placement per learner, priority matching
- Feedback report plus a follow-up
- Two coaching sessions with our lead learning coach
- Manager workshops for your whole management team
- Mentor briefing plus a leadership pathway conversation
- Broadcast interview plus a cohort feature
- Presenting partner of the cohort, logo on all cohort materials
Contribute expertise. Mentor a learner, host a site visit, give a real project brief, sit on a careers panel or offer work experience. Everything is agreed in advance and matched to a program through CABA Progressive’s Work Experience Connector.
Four things every Spark sponsor gets
Work placement in your business
A Spark learner working alongside your team on real tasks, supervised and structured by your Learning Coach, so it adds to your week rather than taking from it. Half-place sponsors host a short placement; full-place sponsors host their learner for up to six months.
A free feedback report
After the placement, your Learning Coach writes you a short report on what we noticed while supporting your learner: how work gets delegated, how new people are brought in, where communication flows and where it sticks. It’s the outside view most owners never get.
A free coaching session with our lead learning coach
One session, on your business, with Dani. Culture, delegation, communication, leadership, the legal and ethical side of managing people, and the real cost of staff turnover. You choose the focus.
Recognition and a story to share
Your business named as a Spark sponsor, a social post from us, and, for full and cohort sponsors, a short broadcast-style interview about your business produced by the learners themselves, yours to use.
Manager workshops, on the house
Full and cohort sponsors are invited to our short workshop series for owners and managers on the practical side of building a team: setting culture, delegating without losing control, giving feedback that lands, keeping good people, and the legal and ethical basics of managing staff. Cohort sponsors can bring their whole management team, and the staff member who mentors your learner gets a mentor briefing, which many sponsors use as the first step toward formal leadership training.
Pick the program closest to your industry, or let us match you
Event Spark
SIT30522 Certificate III in EventsSuits venues, tourism and hospitality, festivals, councils, sporting clubs and anyone who runs events.
Business Spark
BSB30220 Certificate III in Entrepreneurship and New BusinessSuits business owners, professional services, retail, start-ups and social enterprises.
Spark Leadership
BSB40520 Certificate IV in Leadership and ManagementSuits any employer who can offer team-based projects and a chance to practise responsibility.
The young person stays at the centre
CABA Progressive holds the funds and reports on where they go. We assess the learner independently, so sponsors don’t influence results. Placements are agreed in advance, supervised, and built around the learner’s safety and choice. No learner is promised to a sponsor and no job is guaranteed, though many sponsors do go on to employ their learner, and we’ll help make that easy when both sides want it.
One conversation, then a simple agreement
We start with a chat about your business, your industry and what you’d like out of it. From there we match you to a program and a learner, agree the placement, the recognition and the reporting, and put it in a one-page agreement. The first conversation commits you to nothing.
Turn one young person’s potential into a real start, and grow your team while you do it.
This is an expression of interest only. We’ll be in touch to explore what fits.
Book a partnership conversationTwo quick ways to start
Email us. Tell us your business, your industry and which tier you’re curious about, and we’ll come back within two business days.
Email [email protected]Call us. Mon to Fri, 8:30am to 3:00pm.
07 3156 1245