Boosting employment opportunities for Indigenous people in remote regions

Under the Remote Services Deed Providers of Australian Government Employment Services (PAGES) can provide bundled employment services to unemployed job seekers living in remote Employment Services Areas (ESAs).

These services are Job Network (JN), Disability Employment Network (DEN), Job Placement, Employment and Training (JPET), Personal Support Programme (PSP), the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme (NEIS) and Community Work Coordinators (CWCs).

Job Network member Jobfind Centres Australia Pty Ltd has offices in remote ESAs in Cape York and the Palm Island regions and also Cairns in far north Queensland.

Jobfind’s Chief Executive Officer Con J Kittos, says the bundled services have enabled them to provide a much better service to their clients.

For the first time ever there is a one-stop shop from which clients can access Government Employment Services. The providers are there, located in the communities, so there’s no need for clients to travel to access the programme.

Bundled services allow us to assess clients against a range of criteria and then refer them to the most appropriate programmes. Previously, we could only assess clients for Job Network programmes. Given other programmes and agencies were based hundreds of kilometres away in regional centres, if participants didn’t fit the Job Network criteria, there was nowhere else to refer them,’ he said.

Kittos said it was also not viable to deliver individual programmes to remote communities as the costs and time involved to travel were prohibitive.

Delivering the bundled services is now more cost effective. As the services are bundled, the economics improve allowing providers to deliver more services and resources,’ he said.

To date the bundled services have enabled Jobfind to help 40 job seekers into work at Palm Island, Weipa and Cooktown. Of these 10 have reached interim outcomes of 13 weeks employment and 20 have reached preliminary outcomes through returning to further studies.

This work includes labouring, cleaning, traineeships at councils and childcare centres, teachers and teachers aids and carers in hospitals and aged care facilities.

In the Cape region, PSP and JPET have been the services most needed and are in high demand, although still in the first stages of implementation.

Many communities in the Cape region have significant and complex barriers to employment. Jobfind’s focus has been to engage the communities and assist participants to stabilise non-vocational barriers by linking them to services currently available within the community.

An increase in the number of places available in these pre-employment services would be welcomed in the communities’ Kittos said.

Kittos said that the Work for the Dole programme has also proven successful.

Work for the Dole is having a really positive result in terms of re-engaging communities and giving people work experience. For participants the programme reconnects them to group activities and helps to develop networks and support systems.

Work for the Dole is sometimes unpopular to start with but participants have found they really gain a lot and there are tremendous benefits. It’s a win-win for the community and the individuals who also gain skills and training credits,’ he said.

Kittos says that as his staff now need to be multi-skilled across all six services it is vital they receive the proper training.

On a typical visit, staff may need to manage one or two PSP clients as well as a small number of Job Network, CWC and JPET clients. Our staff need to be expert learners as well as everything else and they need to be supported by an organisation that lives and breathes best practice in staff training’ he said.

Kittos said also that as many communities are in remote locations, staff have to adapt to travelling long distances.

It takes a special breed of person to deliver these services to Australia’s remote communities. They need to have a sense of adventure, be flexible and adaptive and enjoy working with Indigenous communities.

Some communities are up to eight hours away by unsealed road, others are completely cut-off during the wet season and are only reachable by plane. We use 4WDs and our staff get defensive driving training,’ he said.

Kittos said providing a broader range of services makes it easier for the clients who are tired of having to deal with different contracts with different providers. This in turn results in more trust from the community.

Jobfind’s approach has been to establish collaborative relationships with existing services and community organisations.

We are confident the new services will, in time, result in both increased employment opportunities, and community members who are more engaged in training and employment initiatives, he said.

Contact information:
info@jobfindcentre.com.au