Georgia Creevey never imagined her hairdressing apprenticeship would lead to a classroom in rural Cambodia.
But the Australian Trade College North Brisbane (ATCNB) graduate’s journey from salon apprentice to aspiring teacher shows how trade skills can open unexpected doors.
Creevey, who received ATCNB’s Year 12 Commendation Award for Hairdressing, joined fellow graduates Jorja Butler and Emily McLucas on yLead’s Alternative Schoolies program in November. The eight day volunteer placement at Cambodian village schools became a turning point that has redirected her entire career path.
“I think the best decision I’ve ever made in my entire life was to go,” Georgia said. “I’ve never been the biggest fan of going to schoolies, and so I always wanted to do something different.”
What started as an alternative to the Gold Coast party scene became a revelation about her strengths. Teaching English to Cambodian primary students showed Georgia skills she had been developing throughout her hairdressing apprenticeship without realising their broader application.
“In hairdressing you’re constantly talking to people, figuring out what they want, making them feel comfortable,” she said. “Those are exactly the skills you need when you’re teaching kids who don’t speak English or working in a community where you’re the outsider.”
The children’s enthusiasm made the connection immediate. “They’re just so happy to see you and to get to learn from all of us. They’re so eager to learn English, to learn our language and about our culture, and learn about us, asking us like our favourite colour, what we like to do, all of that, and then also playing with us at lunchtime, playing soccer, playing all these different kinds of games,” Georgia said.
It was during debriefs that yLead CEO Zoe Meredith-Brown saw something in Georgia. “I remember sitting down with her in a circle, and I said to her, have you ever thought about teaching? You’re bloody good. She just started bawling her eyes out, she said‘I could never do this’. And I said, ‘yes, you could, you could’.”
That moment of encouragement shifted everything for Georgia, “Coming back to Australia, I was like, you know what, I’m just gonna go for it,” Georgia said.
She has since enrolled in a bridging course at the University of the Sunshine Coast and will begin a Bachelor of Primary Education in mid-2026. But she’s clear that her hairdressing training isn’t being left behind. It’s coming with her into every classroom.
The trip included experiencing Cambodia’s complex realities, including a visit to local slums that deeply affected Georgia. “One little boy asked why I was crying,” she said. “He didn’t understand why we were upset because he doesn’t know anything outside of his life there. He hasn’t experienced anything like we have, and so he doesn’t know what he’s missing out on.”
“I’ve caught myself a couple of times being quite ungrateful at home, and this just puts it into perspective that I need to be more grateful for what I have,” Georgia said.
For Zoe, moments like these are central to the program’s purpose. “They have a lot of privilege, and I think when people bring up the privilege conversation, it can come with a level of guilt,” she said. “The thing I love the most about these programs is participants walk away recognising they need to use their privilege as a way to enhance other people’s lives. We didn’t choose where we were born, who we were born to, or the country that we were born into, but there’s a lot that you can do with the privilege that we have, instead of just ignoring it.”
Georgia’s experience at ATCNB made the opportunity possible in ways that surprised her. “I have never had a good high school experience at any school that I’ve been to. Just having that support from teachers was something that I hadn’t experienced before,” she said. “I would have literally never experienced any of this unless it was for that opportunity going to the leadership conference beginning of last year through the college.”
Georgia has been selected as a 2026 yLead mentor and will guide future participants through leadership conferences, potentially returning to Cambodia with next year’s cohort. “I have been recommending people to do it nonstop. I literally have not stopped talking about it since I’ve come back,” she said.
Zoe said this enthusiasm is the program’s greatest testament. “People don’t understand how good our programs are until they experience it themselves,” she said. “The nicest thing coming back is the emails we receive from parents being like, ‘I don’t even recognise my young person anymore. This is incredible.”
The program reflects ATCNB’s broader partnership with yLead, giving trade students access to leadership and service learning opportunities traditionally offered in academic settings. Each year, 50 to 60 students across Queensland participate in Alternative Schoolies programs in Cambodia, New Zealand, Kokoda and Tanzania.
Jorja Butler, who received the Year 12 Excellence Award for Hairdressing and fast-tracked her apprenticeship due to her exceptional skills, brought professionalism and maturity that impressed program coordinators. Emily McLucas, Student Ambassador and shop fitting apprentice, demonstrated initiative throughout the placement.
“Our students graduate with far more than a trade,” ATCNB Acting Principal Megan Moore said. “They gain perspective, maturity and a sense of purpose, qualities that set them apart in any industry.”
For Georgia, the journey from salon floor to classroom represents not a rejection of her hairdressing training but its evolution. “I just know I’m meant to be a teacher,” she said. “Cambodia showed me that. But everything I learned doing hair, working with clients, reading people, that will all come with me.”