Our journey in the services we deliver

Workskil Australia has delivered employment and community services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples for over 30 years. More recently our focus to improve outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples through service delivery has been strengthened, and we have made concerted efforts to grow our dedicated services.

In the 2019/2020 financial year, Workskil Australia provided services to over 12,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander customers, across 7 employment and community service programs. For the same period, Workskil Australia supported 1,891 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander customers into paid employment. In 2018, Workskil Australia successfully tendered for and won, the South Australian State Government funded Work Ready, Release Ready Program (WRRR). The program, which is a contract managed via the Department for Correctional Services, supports an ambition to reduce reoffending rates in South Australia by 10%, by the year 2020. On average, this program supports 30% Aboriginal and or Torres Strait Islander participants at any given time. In 2019, Workskil Australia was purposeful in entering into a sub-contract arrangement with People Plus, to commence delivery of the Time to Work Employment Service Program (TWES) in South Australia. This program is a dedicated and targeted in-prison and community employment program for adult sentenced Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners. These programs support work towards reducing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s overrepresentation in the criminal justice system, which is a key Closing the Gap target. In 2018, Workskil Australia expanded our jobactive program into Western Australia, and opened 14 offices across the State, including a regional office in Geraldton, which is a coastal city in the Mid-West region of the State, 442 kilometres north of Perth.

Probe Group: Cross cultural training

“Since 2017, Workskil Australia has been a key recruitment partner to Probe. Workskil’s local, regional and broader knowledge of unemployment, state demographics, training, and recruitment, as well as their stakeholder connections with Registered Training Organisation (RTO’s) and other employment service providers, has been pivotal in supporting the growth of our business. Importantly, Workskil provides ongoing support to Probe on delivering recruitment solutions for cohorts such as Indigenous peoples, those who identify with disability, youth, and mature age job seekers. They engage and collaborate with other employment service providers across the state and facilitate the promotion of Probe’s recruitment opportunities to their job seekers. Probe’s support service teams have successfully completed Workskil’s Cultural and Diversity Training, to build understanding around Indigenous culture. This allows us to ensure we are appropriately placed to support candidates throughout the employee lifecycle.”

Jessica Eaton | Recruitment Lead | Probe Group

Geraldton is Yamatji country and home to almost 38,000 people. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people make up 9.6% of the population and over 40% of our customer base.

In July 2019, Workskil Australia held our own dedicated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander jobs expo in Perth. The expo, “Koomba Katijin” meaning big knowledge in Noongar language, was held at Victoria Park Community Centre on 3 July. At the expo, 10 employers with job vacancies met with 80 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Workskil Australia customers. A range of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander businesses were engaged in fee for service arrangements and job seekers were offered jobs. Workskil Australia has a dedicated division which provides specialist recruitment support to employers who have diversity, inclusion and parity objectives in their own businesses. Through this division, we also provide culturally appropriate and sensitive pre-placement and employment mentoring to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples commencing work.

Since 2017, Workskil Australia has also offered no cost Cultural Intelligence Workshops to employers to help improve cultural competency in businesses, and to further promote vacancy opportunities for our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander customers.

In 2019, Workskil Australia was presented the “Excellence in Indigenous Employment Award” at the National Employment Services Association (NESA) Awards in Melbourne by The Hon Ken Wyatt AM MP, Minister for Indigenous Australians. This award recognised commitment to culturally appropriate and community led initiatives and projects and improving the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.