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Skilling indigenous job seekers to the point of being ready for work
is an important responsibility that is more readily tackled by the
federal government when it is done in concert with Australian
employers. Originally fostered by Fortescue Metal Group’s
Andrew Forrest, the innovative Fifty Thousand Jobs campaign
aims to disrupt the sequence of indigenous unemployment and
instead propel industry to encourage employment opportunities
and government to skill job seekers. Telling us more about how
the resources sector is not simply succeeding in this campaign, but
in fact exceeding original targets, is the Australian Employment
Covenant’s CEO, Rhonda Parker.
The Australian Employment Covenant (AEC) is a national,
industry-led initiative aimed at securing the commitment
of sustainable jobs for indigenous Australians. The vision
is to bring Australians together to break the vicious cycle of
unemployment, hopelessness and poverty that exists among too
many Australians.
Known as the
Fifty Thousand Jobs
campaign, the project
is a partnership between the federal government, Australian
employers through their partnership with the AEC, and
indigenous job seekers. The agreement between the then
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and AEC founder Andrew Forrest
was that the AEC would build the demand for indigenous
employees and the federal government would skill the job
seekers to work-ready levels.
The job opportunities that employers commit are sustainable,
ongoing positions made available in the natural course of the
business. The commitment is not benevolent; the employees
have to have the required skills for the jobs. The deadline for
Stage 1 of the project was the 30th June 2011.
In what became the largest employer collaboration in this
nation’s history, the AEC announced on 1st July 2011 that
291 employers had partnered with the AEC, committing to
roll out 55,718 job opportunities into their workplaces in the
coming years. All 17 industry sectors are represented.
The employers ranged from large multinationals to small
businesses. The resource sector was well represented among
the 291 employers. Western Australian-based resource
sector companies included Action Industrial Catering, the
AGC Ausgroup, Aquila Resources, BIS Industries, Brierty
Limited, Cliffs Asia Pacific Iron Ore Management, Compass
Group, Conneq, Downer EDI Mining, Fortescue Metals Group,
Georgiou Group, HVLV, Kimberley Industries Group,
Macmahon Holdings, Monadelphous Group, Morris Corporation,
NRW Holdings, Off Shore Marine Services Alliance, Rio Tinto,
Sodexo Remote Sites Australia and Woodside.
The number of employers in the project continues to
grow. There are now more than 300, with the number of jobs
committed exceeding 60,000. More than 3,000 jobs have been
THE 50,000 JOBS CAMPAIGN
RHONDA PARKER
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
AUSTRALIAN EMPLOYMENT COVENANT
ANDREW FORREST ANNOUNCED THE AEC HAS REACHED THEIR TARGET
OF 50,000 JOB COMMITMENTS AT A MEDIA CONFERENCE ON 1ST JULY 2011
building indigenous employment
MINESITE 2011
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