New funding revealed for remote Indigenous training program
New Far North funding worth $484,700 will be invested in training of young Indigenous job seekers from remote Cape York and Torres Strait communities.
Cairns
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New regional funding worth $2.8m will be invested in training of young Indigenous job seekers from remote Cape York and Torres Strait communities.
The outlay under the Indigenous Workforce and Skills Development Grant program will provide opportunities for former offenders, young people, school leavers, and women to gain the skills and training they need to secure local jobs.
Cairns-based Wakaid Pty Ltd has been approved for $200,000 to provide a pathway for First Nations people to get the skills, training and qualifications to work in the dive industry.
Company director Frank Aragu said people would receive all the necessary training to work on boats culling the destructive crown of thorns starfish.
“So we’re bringing participants down from as far away as Thursday Island and Bamaga and we want to bring a few from Lockhart River and Yarrabah into Cairns,” he said.
“They’ll do their medical certificate, dive medical certificate, followed by three first aid training courses, and then they’ll go into three weeks of intensive dive certificate training from open water leading up to rescue certificate that will then allow them to go out and do the culling.”
In the Far North, $484,700 will support up to 50 participants who will earn qualifications including a Certificate III in Community Services, Certificate III in Conservation and Ecosystem Management, Certificate IV in Training and Assessment and marine dive certification.
Mr Aragu said if young people in trouble with the law were capable of doing the course he would look at giving them that opportunity.
Under the program young people would be brought to Cairns and housed in accommodation while completing training with Malu Ventures: Torres Strait before returning home to use their new skills in the eradication of the marine pests.
“It is a tough gig, the three weeks of training, but then you’ve also got four weeks out at sea, and then coming back to two weeks and then going back out again but I could see how it could actually help young people that are in that youth justice space as well,” he said.
Program graduates would be ideally suited to work within the tourism sector on dive boats as well as within the marine research industry and Mr Aragu hoped this would happen.
Employment and Training Minister Ros Bates was in Cairns on Tuesday to announce the program.
“So there’s over $80m statewide for skilling for Queenslanders, and $2.8m has been set aside for the regions for 15 Indigenous-led programs,” she said.
“(This is) an important project tailored to the region, participants will gain the regulatory dive certification requirements and additional training in first aid, advanced resuscitation and oxygen therapy to be part of the control program or work in marine tourism, marine research, or commercial sector.”
The $200,000 granted to Wakaid Pty Ltd will train a total of 14-16 people.
Originally published as New funding revealed for remote Indigenous training program
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