|
Tours and training in the Top End
There’s been a lot of career and transition activity lately in and around Nhulunbuy at the very top end of the Northern Territory, and Regional Industry Career Adviser Donna Owen has been playing a critical connecting and coordinating role.
Milingimbi is a remote community 250 km from Nhulunbuy and 500 km from Darwin. Six students from the Community Education Centre recently made the trip to Nhulunbuy for a week to get some insights into the world of work. They talked to Indigenous and non-Indigenous employers about the nature of the work, expectations of employees, and education and training requirements.
Donna was the organising link between the students and a range of participating businesses and organisations, many of whom contributed financially to the trip as well as in kind. Among them were Alcan, Thrifty Car Hire, Yirrkala Dhanbul Council, ARDS Radio Station, Dhimurru Land Management and Deltareef.
Years 9 and 10 music students from Yirrkala Community Education Centre, just outside Nhulunbuy, undertook a four-day tour to remote Homelands schools, where they put on musical performances, Yidaki (didgeridoo) classes, and dance and screen-printing workshops.
The tour, initiated by Donna and Community Education Centre staff, gave the Homelands students valuable and challenging experiences as well as role models to encourage them to stay engaged in education and training.
This ambitious tour required much resourcing and sponsorship. With assistance from Donna, Yirrkala Community Education Centre won a $2000 grant from the Northern Territory Government’s Training for Remote Youth program.
In Nhulunbuy itself, Donna is working with the local high school and registered training organisations to identify where they can cooperate, maximise resource usage and reduce duplication of services. The ten registered training organisations have agreed to meet regularly and develop a regional strategy.
For young people, this means a clearer path and easier access to training programs, and industry, too, gets clearer and quicker advice about what registered training organisations offer.
Over a two-week period in May 2007, Donna worked with Nhulunbuy High to place 10 students into Structured Workplace Learning programs. She has also used her local industry knowledge to help place five disengaged students into apprenticeships.
When you add to the mix a mock-interview program at Nhulunbuy High and preparations for a major careers and trade expo in August each year, it’s obvious that Nhulunbuy may be a small town but it has ideas as big as the territory around it.
Contact
Donna Owen
Ph: 08 8987 1985