The latest instalment in a $2 million jobs strategy for the Mid-North Coast has been announced.
A $225,000 investment in a partnership between the Arthur Beetson Foundation and Port Macquarie-based employment training com-pany Future Ambition is now confirmed.
The alliance is set to advance Aboriginal employ-ment within our region.
The funding is part of a $2 million commitment in Independent Lyne MP Rob Oakeshott’s 2010 agreement with the Prime Minister to boost local Aboriginal employment outcomes.
“The strategy started with locals,” he said.
“Many locals have been involved in developing a comprehensive jobs strategy for our region and it is now working through the four Jobs Expos held in the past two years, and our record-low jobless figures.
“The number one agreed priority from locals is a priority focus on Aboriginal employment.
“This funding reflects that agreed priority funding.
“This program will start with about 50 local Aboriginal job seekers and then expand into other areas.
“It will complement recent training and employment programs funded in Kemp-sey and Taree, and I have no doubt it will further contribute to our all-time low unemployment rates.
“Aboriginal unemploy-ment in our region is unacceptably high and has been for decades. Gover-nments haven’t paid much attention to the problem in the past but, within a very short period of time, we on the Mid-North Coast are proving that, with a bit of support and a bit of local agreement, we can produce impressive results.
“Already the highly successful Kempsey-based Aboriginal employment program ‘Pathways to the Pilbara’ has provided skills training to about 100 Aboriginal men and women who now have real jobs in the resources sector.
The program received $400,000 last August through this same agreement and strategy.
Likewise, the Booroongen Djugun Aboriginal College received $800,000 to deliver an employment incubator program using a bus fitted out as a support network and classroom to grow, support and mentor Aboriginal small businesses in the Manning, Hastings and Macleay valleys.
“Now I congratulate the new player in the field, the Arthur Beetson Foundation, working alongside Future Ambition and I, along with many others on the Mid-North Coast, look forward to this partnership delivering for the benefit and resilience of the entire Mid-North Coast community,” Mr Oakeshott said.
