Cowra’s Rebecca Hambrook Takes Out Vocational Student Of The Year At NSW Training Awards

Weigelli Corporation employee and Cowra local Rebecca Hambrook toom out Vocational Students of the Year at the NSW Training Awards in Sydney last Thursday.

Ms Hambrook, has overcome addiction, incarceration and childhood trauma.

She has leveraged her lived experience as a support worker and advocate for First Nations and rural people at the Weigelli Centre Aboriginal Corporation in Woodstock, near Cowra.

Ms Hambrook said her Certificate IV in Community Services and personal experience made for a powerful combination to transform people’s lives.

“Working as a support worker at a drug and alcohol residential rehabilitation centre is really rewarding for me,” Ms Hambrook said. “It really holds a big piece in my heart being able to help people who are going through similar journeys as to what I have.

“I know what the struggles are, and I know there’s a better life that can be lived, which can be hard to see when you are not in a good place. To be recognised with this award is amazing.

I never thought it would be happening to me.”

This year’s NSW Training Awards were held on Thursday, 11 September, at Sydney Town Hall following seven regional events hosted by Regional Training Services across the state earlier in the year.

Ms Hambrook will go on to represent NSW at the Australian Training Awards in Darwin on 5 December 2025.