An APM project to train job seekers in Western Australia is on track to deliver employment opportunities in mining.
Partnering with Kajarinya Pty Ltd in Geraldton, APM Business Manager Ricky Cox said the project has been a success with a group of 10 Indigenous job seekers gaining valuable training.
As part of APM Employment Services’ jobactive program, Ricky and employment consultant Belinda Hughes set up the partnership in the community specifically to help Indigenous job seekers.
It also involved partnering with community support service MEEDAC who supplied transport to help the job seekers get to and from their training.
“We moved quickly to get the right job seekers matched as a group and to the training,” Ricky said. “Then we got them kitted out with boots and high-vis clothes.”
Ricky said the training not only provided better job prospects, but also empowered the job seekers and helped raise their confidence.
The community-based project is just one of many examples of how APM Employment Services works with other organisations to improve the lives of job seekers across regional and metro areas across Australia.
The success of the project was recently reported on by the Geraldton Guardian.
Learn more about APM Employment Services.
From the Geraldton Guardian…
Trainees are on track for mine careers
Ten young Aboriginal men who have completed part of a civil construction planning course are about to be trained as dump truck drivers so they can work in open pit mines.
Trainer Malcolm Whitby said it was all about giving indigenous people a fair go in training.
“We are here to show potential clients these guys can be trained,” he said.
“Lend Lease are interested in employing more indigenous people, and we are talking to Main Roads about securing more jobs down the track and trying to get more indigenous people into the workplace.”
As an Aboriginal man with a long involvement in mining Mr Whitby said he was an example to the trainees that they could have the same career.
He said he had revived his old business Kajarinya Pty Ltd, which he ran for 10 years in the Pilbara before going on to work as a mine manager and superintendent.
“We saw the need for more indigenous training, so now we are back into training,” he said.
Advanced Personnel Management contracted Mr Whitby to deliver the training, and business manager Ricky Cox said he was pleased with the trainees.
“We are super proud of the boys who have come along and their demeanour from when they started to now they have completed the course,” he said.
“They have more faith in themselves and more confidence to deal with people.”