You can't put Charles Impey in a box, and you wouldn't want to

Spend a bit of time with him and you will come away smiling, for sure. His passion for life is infectious.

But it's his passion for his job as Calrossy Anglican School careers advisor, that drives him.

He just loves "helping young people find their direction in life".

"There is multitudes of questions a student can ask," he said.

"It can be, 'Mr Impey, I don't know what to do with my life', to 'Oh, I've got a really good idea of the course I want to do, where can I do it?' to 'I want to go to the university of blah, blah. Can you tell me how to enrol?'"

He has worked as an advisor for 24 years, the last eight at Calrossy.

As an out-of-the-box thinker, he tries to find interesting ways to prompt kids to explore different career avenues.

Walking into his office, your eye is immediately drawn to a multi-coloured wall of drink bottles, all from different universities, businesses, or government services.

"The kids look at all the logos or my CareFlight bear collection with different occupations," he said.

"It just get them thinking like, 'What does this mean, Mr Impey?' and it contextualises careers in a real-world sense. Plus it makes it feel less like a classroom, or a staffroom.

"You want careers to be something you can talk about, with no boundaries, no walls in place."

Instead of telling kids which career path to take, Mr Impey likes to guide them to their own conclusions.

"When a kid comes in with an aspiration, my job isn't to tell them to not do it, or they should do it," he said, "my job is to show them how to get there."

Born in Sydney, Mr Impey moved to Tamworth to pursue his career in 1992.

"I started doing primary school teaching in Sydney and before I moved up here, I decided a year of university wasn't really what I wanted to do and I decided to take a break from study and never go back," he said.

"I worked in fitness, then retail and retail management, and I spent 12 years with Coles. I worked a bit in hospitality and security."

He certainly didn't set out to become an advisor, but when the opportunity fell into his lap, he was intrigued.

"It was a chance opportunity down at JobLink Plus, when they had the old Jobs Pathway program," he said.

"Back in those days I was asked to go round schools and run programs around preparing and submitting resumes, cover letters, applications, and those type of things."

And his resume does not stop there. Mr Impey has been a government advisor on policy development around careers and was even a councillor on Tamworth Regional Council, which he balanced with his work at Calrossy.

The opportunity arose after he helped to develop the Adventure Playground and Marsupial Park.

"The former mayor, Col Murray, sat down with me one day and asked me 'Charles what do you think about running for council?' I nearly fell off my chair," he said.

"I'm not a politician, I'm not a member of any political party, but I love where I live.

"Running for council, in Col's words, 'You have an opportunity to shape the community even more'. And that was what I liked the sound of."

His campaign primarily focused on youth and environmental and local services.

Unfortunately, Mr Impey fell just short in his re-election bid. He took it as a sign to "step back" and "focus on personal priorities".

Losing his council seat did nothing to dim his passion for the Tamworth community.

He has continued to work at Calrossy, organise community events, spend time with his kids, and even popped the question to his long-time partner, Nicole.

The proposal took place, where else, but at Tamworth's Marsupial Park.

"I proposed to Nicole in the bird aviary. It was quite a magical little moment," he said.

"Nicole just walked past me and I tapped her on the shoulder, and just before all these birds came from everywhere. It was like they knew what was about to happen.

"And before you know it, I was on one knee with a ring in my hand, asking her to marry me. She said 'Yes'."

No matter what the future brings, Mr Impey hopes to continue his work with young people. He believes they are the future.

"I love working with them as they are a sponge for information," he said.

"I think young people also get a bad rap. By and large, young people do have an interest in their future and wanting to flourish in life. It is just a few bad apples that create that bad image."