A new cadetship program with Aurecon is delivering new employment opportunities for Indigenous people in Queensland.
In 2012 Aurecon successfully implemented a cadetship program to support employment opportunities for Māori young people in New Zealand. Aurecon wanted to mirror the program in Australia for Indigenous people. After a number of unsuccessful trials with other providers, Aurecon approached Programmed Skilled Workforce in late 2018.
Working closely with Aurecon to understand their requirements, we created four traineeship opportunities within engineering services and business administration. Planning and recruitment commenced in December 2018, with our trainees starting at Aurecon in April 2019.
There was significant interest in the cadetship program with over 185 applications received. Our Training Services team managed the specialised recruitment and selection process to ensure the ‘right fit’ for Aurecon and our Indigenous trainees.
The selection process ensured each trainee met Aurecon’s requirements and expectations and also assessed each of our candidate’s personal readiness for work.
Four trainees started in early April 2019 based at Aurecon’s Brisbane office. Three are undertaking a Certificate III in Engineering – Technical (Draftsperson) and one is completing a Certificate III in Business Administration. We have partnered with TAFE Queensland Registered Training Organisation, Skills Tech in Acacia Ridge to deliver the formal Certificate III qualifications.
As part of the contract, our Indigenous Workforce Services National Manager Francine Pickett delivered complementary culture awareness training to Aurecon staff (including human resources professionals, senior managers, supervisors and other support staff) based in Brisbane at the commencement of the traineeship program.
The roll out of the program has been a great success and met all of Aurecon’s requirements. We will now be working with Aurecon to expand the program throughout the country. Our trainees are also thankful with the opportunity, with one sending the below feedback to Francine:
‘I’d like to thank you and Brad [Queensland Apprenticeship and Traineeship Field Officer] for your work in setting this, very real, life changing opportunity up for me. I’m sure I will need to reach out to you at some point but until then, please remember you have my thanks for this.’
For more information on how to create a diverse and qualified workforce, contact Brendon Ah Chee or Francine Pickett
Programmed is a leading Staffing and Maintenance organisation, providing staffing, professional, technical, training and maintenance services across Australia and New Zealand with more than 20,000 employees supporting industry.
