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GenerationOne Business Breakfast by Johanna Kerin
Since the launch of GenerationOne in 2010 many milestones have been achieved. Through the Australian Employment Covenant, a GenerationOne initiative, the campaign has seen the commitment of over 60,000 jobs from 335 employers across Australia. In celebration of its third birthday and its achievements so far, GenerationOne hosted an executive business breakfast in Parliament House Canberra. Representatives from over 100 employers that partner with GenerationOne attended the breakfast, taking full advantage of the opportunity to share their first hand Indigenous employment experiences with members of the Government and the Opposition. “I am glad that the policy makers can hear first hand the barriers that some employers and job seekers face. Our employers bring solutions to these discussion. We partner with many companies that have established successful Indigenous employment programs, ”said Warren Mundine, GenerationOne Chairman. One company that partner with GenerationOne is ISS Facility Services. Based out of the Gold Coast, ISS committed 50 jobs for Indigenous job candidates in 2009 though the Australian Employment Covenant. In February 2011 after fulfilling its first covenant, the company resigned and committed a further 265 jobs. Last week at a small event attended by GenerationOne in Queensland, ISS announced that they have employed over 550 Indigenous people.
Warren Mundine GenerationOne Chairman, Scott Erwin ISS National General Manager of Human Resources and Scott Wilson ISS National Manager Employment Programs. Image supplied
Scott Wilson, ISS National Manager Employment Programs and Indigenous Development puts the success of the program down to actions, ongoing support and the overall structure of the program. “Clear actions, effective program structure and operational support are the foundations to the success,” said Mr Wilson. ISS offer a pre employment program that prepares long term unemployed job seekers for the everyday workplace expectations as well as job specific training. This demand driven recruitment is known as employer directed training. Mr Wilson believes that future success of Indigenous employment on a national scale is only possible through leadership and collaboration from existing resources. “Greater coordination of the various services and programs available to assist Aboriginal people into work, and that is why we support the VTEC [Vocational Training and Employment Centres] concept. Leadership at the
top level of Government and industry will be required for this to be achieved,” he said. Dean Jones, an ISS preemployment participant and now mentor, works in security at Brisbane airport. After being out of work for six months and applying for many jobs he found himself frustrated with the employment system. “I must have applied for about 60 jobs as a forklift operator but didn’t get a look in. And I‘m a licensed forklift operator,” said Dean. Dean explained how important the pre employment programs was to his success. “The course was absolutely essential. I wasn’t dropped in the deep end like at other jobs. It was facilitated by Bridget who is Indigenous herself and that was good. We got a lot of information about ISS and its expectations. Those were made very clear! Bridget talked about how to meet and greet people and what our attitude and dress sense should be like,” he said. “Employer directed training allows job seekers to be trained for jobs that exist, rather than being trapped
in a training and unable to find work. This has kept our people out of jobs for decades,” said Mr Mundine. At the executive business breakfast in Canberra, GenerationOne Chairman Warren Mundine and founder Andrew Forrest called on the government to cease investing money into training programs that do not lead Indigenous people to real jobs. “Training in isolation to the jobs market is futile, training programs must lead to jobs, it is the only sensible solution to ending the disparity between Indigenous and nonIndigenous Australians,” said Mr Mundine. GenerationOne combined with the Australian Employment Covenant say they have built a momentum of real change. “We partner with 336 employers, who have committed to over 60,000 jobs for Indigenous jobs seekers and we have over 284,000 Australians supporting us. Out of those committed jobs we have celebrated the employment of 14,000 Indigenous people,” said Mr Mundine.
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