11 June 2008

Local Aboriginal people will have improved job opportunities and better training and development resources under a new program to be implemented by Bathurst Regional Council.

Council, in partnership with the Bathurst Local Aboriginal Consultative Committee (BLACC) is developing an Aboriginal Employment Strategy for Council. The Committee works with Council to identify and address Aboriginal social and cultural issues within Bathurst.

In September 2006, Council adopted the Bathurst Social and Community Plan 2006-2010, in which Community consultations identified employment, education, health and housing as key areas of disadvantage for local Aboriginal people and highlighted that obtaining employment was linked to improvements in other key areas.

In February 2007, BLACC embarked on a proposal to establish an Aboriginal Employment Strategy for Bathurst Regional Council to help promote access to job vacancies within Council. Council selects its employees on a merit basis, however, has reviewed its recruitment and other employment processes to make them more relevant to Aboriginal people.

Bathurst Regional Councillor Tracey Carpenter said the proposal represented a valuable opportunity for both Council and the indigenous community.

“Council is a major employer in the Bathurst Region with a staff of more than 300 people working across a variety of fields,” Cr Carpenter said.

“The Aboriginal Employment Strategy is an opportunity for Council to tap into a rich resource of potential employees with a breadth of skill and talent that until now has been under utilised.”

The Strategy focuses five key result areas of Aboriginal employment; these include recruitment, retention, skills acquisition and career development, cultural education across the organisation and community engagement and capacity building.

One particular strategy to support the recruitment of Aboriginal employees is to include an Aboriginal person with merit based recruitment and selection training on Council’s employment interview panels where job applicants are Aboriginal people and where jobs involve substantial contact and communication with the Aboriginal community.

Council invites people from the local Aboriginal community who have completed merit based recruitment and selection training and have experience in participating on employment interview panels to provide their contact details, qualifications and experience to Council to participate in this exciting new process.

Further details can be obtained from Council’s Community Services or Human Resources Departments.