An integral part of our relationship with the customer is recruitment and support of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander trainees.

Programmed’s Indigenous Employment Services focuses on providing sustainable employment outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander jobseekers by:

• Actively working with our clients to identify and create genuine employment opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
• Working directly with communities, community organisations and representatives, Australian Employment Covenant, and Indigenous networks to source candidates from the community local area. In the case of our customer, we work with the people of the Yugambeh.

Our Indigenous recruitment strategies address barriers that may impact Indigenous candidates. One of our strategies includes pre-employment training, such as the provision of obtaining a white card licence, OHS certification, traffic control management, etc.

Programmed’s Indigenous Employment Manager maintains contact with the employee from the commencement of the recruitment process, which reduces barriers for the candidate and enables us to quickly address any questions they may have about the employment process.

The critical success of our working relationship with our customer is attributed to open communication between the customer’s employees and our Field Officers and Indigenous Employment Manager, who visits our customer frequently. The mentoring and support of Indigenous employees through to completion of training and employment from both Field Officers and the Indigenous Employment Manager also attributes to our success.

Other support mechanisms for Indigenous candidates include access to Programmed’s Indigenous Employment Manager and/or team for advice and support relating to any work or personal issues that may impact their ongoing employment.

Programmed’s Indigenous Employment Services placed eight Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander candidates into a Certificate III in Road Construction & Maintenance traineeship, with a 100% retention rate.