Friends to job gurus
TWO best friends from northern Tasmania who met in Hobart a decade ago will take over a former gym to turbocharge their business.
Launceston duo Emilee Freeman and Taz Devadass started Futures Isle, an employment, training and entrepreneur facilitation business, 30 months ago.
The pair said their first major client was ABC’s Haywire project, but now they have recurrent federal government funding under the Local Jobs Program and the Entrepreneurship Facilitators scheme.
And there’s little they can’t help with – finding a job, finding an employee, developing your business idea, becoming job-ready.
After two and a half years of working in Ms Devadass’s rumpus room – “weird carpet and a billion board games” – the pair are just weeks away from moving into a new permanent home.
At Thursday’s City of Launceston council meeting, Futures Isle’s development application to turn 120A Invermay Rd, Invermay, into its new office, was approved. The building was formerly Crossfit Levitate gym.
In preparation, Ms Freeman and
Ms Devadass had been furiously trawling Facebook Marketplace to find cheap and free second-hand furniture to populate the space.
“Someone gave us 300 plants,” Ms Devadass said.
“We want the office to be a beautiful, plant-filled space not like any other workshop, with teal-green leather couches and rugs.”
The additional funding has also allowed them to grow their family of two into three, with the hiring of University of Tasmania graduate Rohit Augustine, a former sailor.
Ms Devadass said she and Ms Freeman volunteered together at anti-poverty charity Oaktree in Hobart 10 years ago. They became best friends and wanted to build the community’s capacity while simultaneously stopping the “mainland brain drain”.
“So many people I talk to love Tasmania and want to stay, but they are not sure of the pathway forwards,” Ms Devadass said.
“People have said to Emily and I, ‘You guys are go-getters, why aren’t you in Melbourne or Canberra?’
“But we’ve got family and commitments and a life here.
“So now, if you want to stay in Tasmania, you can have the support and advice and development you need.”