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| Positive Dreaming, Solid Futures Launched » | |
 Indigenous Employment and Training Strategy Launched
A new State Government strategy to increase employment and reduce unemployment among Indigenous people in Queensland was launched in Cairns on 4 September.
Education and Training Minister Rod Welford said Positive Dreaming, Solid Futures – the Queensland Government’s Indigenous Employment and Training Strategy 2008-2011 represented a new and sustained effort to improve labour force participation by Indigenous people in the state.
“The combination of the strength of the Queensland economy, low unemployment and skills and labour shortages gives us a unique opportunity to do something constructive to improve the livelihoods and prospects of Indigenous people,” Mr Welford said.
“Skills training and jobs are fundamental to achieving economic and social wellbeing for both Indigenous people individually and communities.
“During the process of consultations with Indigenous people in producing the Positive Dreaming, Solid Futures strategy, the overwhelming desire was to see a work-first focus.
“There also needs to be improved targeting of government investment and mentoring for Indigenous enterprise development.”
The strategy will reinforce existing positive initiatives and identify areas for improved cooperation, collaboration and new investment.
There will be a particular emphasis on those individuals and communities that are locked into inter-generational unemployment due to multi-faceted social and life issues.
Mr Welford said the Government needed to place greater priority on engaging business and industry in partnerships focused on placing Indigenous jobseekers into jobs. Target industries will include the resources, construction, tourism, primary industry and community services industries.
Positive Dreaming, Solid Futures commits to four priority areas:
• maximising employment through strategic alliances
• skilling individuals for work
• building capabilities in communities to enhance community and economic development opportunities
• aligning employment support and training to the needs of Indigenous Queenslanders.
The strategy will be accompanied by a multi-agency implementation plan, and led by the Departments of Education, Training and the Arts, and Department of Employment and Industrial Relations.
For further information visit
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| www.deta.qld.gov.au/positivedreaming | | |
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 10 Years of Mining Industry Training Excellence
The Mining Industry Skills Centre Training Awards have gone from strength to strength in recent years and 2008 is no exception. This year’s winners will be announced at a dinner in Brisbane on September 26.
The number of entries this year was again a record, with nominations received from Western Australia, Northern Territory, New South Wales and Queensland.
Originally the awards were Queensland-based and focused on mining, but this changed as event organisers, the Mining Industry Skills Centre, began working across the country. The awards are now national and are open to the whole of the resources industry.
Their greatest growth came between 2006 and 2007 when the number of nominations increased by 57 per cent. This year there were nearly 60 nominations.
The awards recognise outstanding achievement and commitment by trainees, trainers, individuals and organisations in the Australian resources industry.
For more information go to: |
| www.miskillscentre.com.au | | |
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  Course Entices Snowfield Workers to 'Hot' Jobs
Hospitality workers at New South Wales Snowy Mountains ski resorts are being targeted by Queensland’s tourism industry for jobs in this state.
Two separate initiatives launched by the Queensland industry are both aimed at attracting New South Wales hospitality employees.
A special TAFE diploma course is being developed, offering less-qualified casual ski industry workers the opportunity to do work placements on the Gold Coast.
In addition, Tourism Whitsunday is actively promoting post-ski season jobs in its region to hospitality workers currently at Snowy Mountain resorts.
Both projects are initiatives of the statewide Tourism Skills Formation Strategy.
The industry is now driving planning for tourism’s future staffing and training needs in Queensland after the strategy transitioned to industry last February.
The new TAFE course – an 18-month advanced diploma course in hospitality management – is being established by Gold Coast Institute of TAFE (GCIT) in partnership with New South Wales’ Illawarra TAFE Institute (Cooma Campus).
Part of a project colourfully named Fire and Ice, it involves both TAFEs linking with a Cooma training provider and labour hire company, Snowy Staff, to offer course students work placement and employment in the New South Wales ski resorts and the Gold Coast tourism, hospitality and events industry.
The recruitment drive by Tourism Whitsunday has involved the organisation promoting job opportunities in New South Wales at the start of the new ski season. It set up a display at the Jindabyne pre-season expo in late June, offering to put interested hospitality workers in touch with potential Whitsunday employers.
Janniene McDonald of the Gold Coast Institute of TAFE said planning was well advanced for the new diploma course to begin in February next year.
“There has been fantastic interest in Fire and Ice from our Queensland industry, and of course our Snowy region partners are strongly committed,” Ms McDonald said.
She added that other Queensland regional tourist organisations were watching very closely to see how the initiative works out.
Fire and Ice and the Tourism Whitsunday initiative have developed as part of the Queensland tourism industry’s response to shortages of skilled workers, a problem not helped by current cross-border skills transfer arrangements.
Robyn Keenan, Queensland Tourist Industry Council skills link manager, said the joint diploma project with Illawarra TAFE was an exciting initiative, strongly supported by the Council because it would help make industry workers more mobile.
The Gold Coast TAFE received federal funding to develop the project as a best practice inter-state training collaboration.
For more information on Fire and Ice contact Janiene McDonald of Gold Coast Institute of Tafe on 5581 8795. |
| www.goldcoast.tafe.qld.gov.au | | |
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 More Trade Apprentices and 'Fast Finishers'
A new national analysis shows trade apprentices are again on the increase and greater numbers are completing their training faster.
In the 12 months to December 2007, trade training commencements were 6 percent higher than 2006 at 82,900 and almost double the 41,800 commencements in 1997, the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) reported.
A centre spokesman said the 11 years of data available to it showed a steady trend of increasing numbers of trade apprentices, reflecting the demand for these skills by employers.
The new statistics also showed trade apprentices were completing full trade qualifications faster.
In 2007 over a quarter (28 percent) of all trade apprentices completed their training in two years or less. In 1997, around one in six (17 percent) completed a trade apprenticeship in two years or less.
The new data also showed that the drop out rate for trade apprentices in the first 12 months is slightly lower than the average for all trainees. Within a year of starting, the attrition rate for trade apprentices was 28 percent, compared with an average of 30 percent for trainees in all occupations.
Broader analysis of apprenticeship and traineeship data also reveals that the completion rate for trade apprentices is just under 50 percent.
Some trades, notably engineering, printing and electrical have higher completion rates.
For more about the report go to: |
| www.ncver.edu.au | | |
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