May 15, 2013
Jobfind Centres Australia, a member of the Angus Knight group, in partnership with Tania Major Consultancy recently commenced the first of 3 workshops in the Gulf community of Doomadgee. As former young Australian of the year 2007 and the youngest person ever to be elected to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) in 2004, Tania Major has a long commitment to positive change and development in communities across Australia.
The workshops explore the impact of poor reading and writing skills on the lives of individuals and their children. These workshops work to broaden participants’ understanding of how their home culture influences cognitive development and performance at school, work, or community.
The workshops are highly interactive in nature and were developed to meet the needs of the people of Doomadgee. Participants are immersed in information about other cultural groups and how those groups have approached literacy and numeracy issues in their communities. Activities focus on delineating between intelligence and skill development so participants understand that skills like literacy and numeracy can be learned at any stage of life. This first workshop was an outstanding success and provided Tania with her first visit to Doomadgee since she was 13 years old.
Tania Major explains “Being in a dynamic community like Doomadgee after so many years away was thrilling. The best part, however, was the enthusiasm for learning exhibited by the participants. Discussions revealed the deep levels of interest and commitment of participants to broadening their understanding of the world and the socio-political systemic impacts on their lives.
Jobfind Centres Australia work across many remote communities in Queensland and have a passion for providing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples with high quality training and employment services and take great pride in working to develop confidence and job opportunities in the community. “We are thrilled to have expertise such as Tania Major Consulting partnering with us in Doomadgee. What they bring to the community enhances our strong performance even further.” says Stewart Williams, General Manager of Jobfind Centres Queensland.