Indigenous Employment Program: A Step Towards Providing Jobs to the Most Unnoticed Community
Despite the 2008
‘Close the Gap’ framework, there is still an obvious big employment gap between
non-indigenous and indigenous Australians. In an effort to actually close that
gap, programs continue to be implemented by both the government and
not-for-profit organisations, which emphasise the importance of education to
enhance the chance of aboriginal Australians gain meaningful jobs. Moreover,
there is Australia’s indigenous
employment program known as IAGDP (Indigenous Australian Government
Development Program) helping Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal people who
may be interested to work in the APS (Australian Public Service).
The indigenous employment program aims to
improve the employment outcomes, opportunities, and experiences for all
indigenous Australians in the APS. They value the skills, unique life
experiences, and capability of Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal employees,
and draw from those, too. Thus, they are committed to developing a versatile
and talented workforce. Applications are open annually between April and May
for roles that will commence in February on the following year. Positions are
typically available in large regional centres, some capital cities, and in
Canberra.
The indigenous employment program is seen
as a critical step towards providing more jobs to an underappreciated
community. There are many benefits of the program, such as the provision of
structured development and learning to help indigenous people build a career in
the APS, and possibly in other industries. The program also supports them to
take a diploma course in different specialisations that may interest them.
Other benefits include study assistance, competitive salaries, employment
conditions, and superannuation, peer support, coaching, mentoring, and
permanent full-time position upon completion of the program.
The type of work
involved in the indigenous
employment program will vary, depending on the agency that
participants will be working in. It could involve data entry, records
management, answering enquiries, communications, human resources management,
contract and project management, procurement, and other general clerical,
administrative, operational, or systems support work.
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