A bid to further improve the region’s record low unemployment rate began today with the announcement Booroongen Djugun College will receive $800,000 to develop and run a small business employment incubator and mobile small business classroom on the Mid-North Coast, Independent Lyne MP Rob Oakeshott said.
Another $400,000 will expand the highly successful Kempsey-based Pathways to the Pilbara program to the Manning. Pathways to the Pilbara provides local Aboriginal men and women with mining-related training opportunities.
“Funding for both programs is the result of two years of community consultation with 14 local land councils and three education and skills forums in the Manning, Hastings and Macleay,” Mr Oakeshott said.
“Two more programs, already centred in the Manning Valley, are in the final stages of funding agreement, and will be announced shortly.”
The funding opportunity was negotiated following the 2010 federal election and focused on better Aboriginal employment outcomes on the Mid-North Coast.
“We are in the middle of the most genuine and serious push on jobs for our region that has ever been undertaken, and a big part of that is getting better outcomes for our local Aboriginal community.
“Booroongen Djugun, which already has a proven track record on employment success through its college at Greenhills, will deliver an employment incubator program to improve the connections between those who want work and actual jobs.
“It will use a mobile bus service, fitted out as a support network and classroom, to grow, support and mentor Aboriginal small businesses.
“Pathways to the Pilbara, which has already placed more than 90 Aboriginal workers in ‘fly-in, fly-out’ mining industry jobs in Western Australia’s Pilbara region, has a near perfect retention rate and is likely to place another 100 people in high-paying mining jobs by the end of the year,” Mr Oakeshott said.
“It is expected that this program will now expand its services into the Manning Valley.”
