Barcaldine road project becomes employment pathway

Learning to use road machinery is paving the way to steady jobs for eight unemployed Indigenous people in Barcaldine.

Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations John Mickel said isaSKILLS have organised the Roads to Employment project thanks to a $113,310 grant from the Skilling Queenslanders for Work initiative.

“These participants are completing 17-week paid work placements to train on and gain the qualifications to operate the vehicles used in road construction,” Mr Mickel said.

“Barcaldine Regional Council is providing $325,950 in-kind support for the project along with $43,200 from Construction Skills Queensland to fund the training.

“With unemployment at 3.8 per cent it can be easy to forget Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders, as well as other groups in Queensland, can face a hard time finding stable work.

“Through projects like this unemployed and underemployed people can get the training and skills employers are struggling to find which will help keep our economy growing strong.”

isaSKILLS Longreach Manager Shirley Marks said Barcaldine Regional Council are hosting the paid work placements and the participants’ performance is exceptional.

“They’re working on the airport where they are acquiring the skills to operate a backhoe, a front-end loader, a road roller and a grader,” Mrs Marks said.

“The participants have construction blue cards and when they finish the project they’ll have the qualifications and experience to sustain steady employment.

“The participants are valuable members of the team of employees of the Barcaldine Regional Council. This is shaping up as an excellent project and one that we can build on into the future.”

During 2008/09 the Queensland Government will invest $80 million in the Skilling Queenslanders for Work initiative to give an estimated 15,000 long-term unemployed and underemployed people job related assistance and skills training to maximise labour force participation and increase Queensland's prosperity.

Twelve months after receiving assistance 71 per cent of participants are in employment or further training.

Skilling Queenslanders for Work is part of the State Government’s $1 billion Queensland Skills Plan which aims to provide individuals and industry with the skills and workforce for the 21^st Century.

For more information on the Skilling Queenslanders for Work initiative visit www.employment.qld.gov.au or call 1300 369 925

Contact: JOB futures / isaSKILLS Longreach Manager Shirley Marks on 4658 0555 or reachmanager@isaskills.org

Ministerial contact: Nathan Moir on 3235 4060

August 21, 2008