Our North, whose future: What is the scope for Aboriginal workforce development?

Eva McRae-Williams & John Guenther

Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation (CRC-REP)

Regional Economies• Population, Mobility and Labour Markets • Enduring Community Value from Mining • Climate Change Adaption and Energy Futures

Enterprise Development• Aboriginal Cultural Enterprise • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Economies • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Tourism Product • Carbon Economies in Remote Australia • Plant Business• Precision Pastoral Management Tools

Investing in People• Interplay Project • Remote Education Systems • Pathways to Employment

See: http://crc-rep.com/

RES PROJECT2011-2016

1. What is education for in remote Australia and what can/should it achieve?

2. What defines ‘successful’ educational outcomes from the remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander standpoint?

3. How does teaching need to change in order to achieve ‘success’ is defined by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander standpoint?

4. What would an effective education system in remote Australia look like?

PATHWAYS PROJECT2012-2016

1. How do Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people residing in very remote Australia navigate their way into meaningful livelihoods?

2. What kinds of work might help to support sustainable livelihood outcomes?

3. What kinds of learning could support meaningful livelihood agendas, aspirations and pathways?

Where remote is not far away at all

• Some cool pictures….

 

Jobs aplenty – but for who?

Employed Unemployed Total population

-5000

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

16395

236

27411

-561

1729

8780

Non-Indigenous Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

Cha

nge

in p

opul

atio

n

No ‘Real’ Jobs in Very Remote Australia?

Total number of jobs (place of enumeration): 106, 437

Indigenousnon-Indigenousnot stated

Very Remote Employees

Without QualificationUp to Cert IICert III & IVDiploma +

Source ABS (2011) see Guenther and McRae-Williams (2014) for breakdowns per industry

Problems with the engineered ‘pathway’

ASchooling

Training

BEmployment

?

Picture?

AEmployment

BSchoolingTraining

EducationLife-long learning

Avoiding more of the same becoming creative

• Avoid falling into othering traps which perpetuate myths and false stereotypes

• Power through local governance and leadership• Engagement for mutual benefit• Learning that builds local capacities• Recognise local standpoints• Valuing mixed economies• Value for money experiences, not work for the dole• Work that leads to training, not the other way around• Decolonising labour force strategies