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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-05-04 Daily Xml
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WOOLWORTHS INDIGENOUS PRE-EMPLOYMENT PROGRAM

Mrs VLAHOS (Taylor) (15:21): I rise today to talk about the Woolworths Indigenous Pre-employment Program, and I recently attended the graduation ceremony at the Mawson Lakes Hotel on behalf of the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, the Hon. Grace Portolesi. The evening was a very happy and transformative occasion. The graduates spoke about their personal circumstances and many of them had had very trying lives. This night was very important to them because, in getting to the graduation, they had overcome many obstacles to complete the course. Their next of kin were there to celebrate with them and many of them had never been to a graduation of such significance in their life before.

South Australian Woolworths has recognised that to ensure a long-term sustained employment of indigenous people in our state it needs to ensure that they are given a fair chance of success in the workplace. Indeed, many pre-employment programs that are offered to indigenous people are simply that—they are short-stay employment programs that offer no real jobs at the end of the program they are put through.

This program, in contrast, offers real, long-term sustainable jobs for the people of this community. This is the first project that Woolworths has been involved in where each of their divisions has been involved, and it is uniquely South Australian. Woolworths has recognised that the fairest way to ensure this success is through a good pre-employment program, a rigorous selection process, and ongoing mentoring and support ensuring that store managers, supervisors and staff undertake the appropriate cultural awareness training.

The Woolworths Indigenous Pre-employment Program is being run by a consortia, comprising the Mining, Energy and Engineering Academy and the Globally Make a Difference (GMAD) group, who provide personal development and leadership services and training. Also involved in the project is TrainMe, a retail RTO, in conjunction with Woolworths Limited and their human resources managers in this state. The program is supported by the Australian government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations and the South Australian Department of Further Education, Employment, Science and Technology through South Australia Works.

Together with this consortia they source, train and mentor suitable Indigenous candidates to fill roles at all levels of the organisation from checkout operators to night fillers, to school-based trainees to bakery apprentices, to meat apprentices and to management positions. Together they support the store managers and supervisors who work closely with the HR and management teams throughout the state to ensure that everyone is able to support and achieve the high ideals that this program has set.

Woolworths would like to aspire to having a minimum of two indigenous people employed in all of their larger sites and distribution centres across the state during the two-year period that the program is running. Woolworths currently has 55 Woolworths stores, four Big W stores, and two distribution centres in South Australia, plus the Dan Murphy chain, so indeed there are many real jobs that are available to this community.

Currently the project is funded and has nine programs rolled out of 10 weeks' duration. This will involve roughly 221 unemployed Indigenous South Australians across the country and metro area during 2011 and 2012. The 10 week pre-employment training is primarily focused on getting participants work ready, and comprises a comprehensive and proven personal development program aimed at building their self-esteem, self worth and confidence. It particularly involves customer service skills, numerous role plays, site visits, retail technical skills, grooming, financial management, computer training, resume writing, business knowledge and understanding, and a two-week job placement.

The stats for this program are truly remarkable. At least 56 of the graduates are currently employed in the Woolworths chain, and five have moved on to further employment external to the chain. I would like to commend the students, the graduates, and their families, the consortium and Woolworths SA for their inspiring work and commitment in transforming the lives of Indigenous South Australians and their families, providing real and long-term jobs and a new pathway to a better and brighter future.

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