Work With What You Have Got
For those who want to do more than jump on some reactive party political band wagon that leads back to a politics of yesterday, don’t just read the recently released and much anticipated Forrest Review Creating Parity. Also read the story of Pilbara Aboriginal mining company Ngarda Civil and Mining and the pathbreaking training program which was a catalyst for so-called demand driven training. The report released in 2007 and entitled Strength through Work, Enterprise and Training identified 22 barriers to Aboriginal employment in good well paying jobs in the mining industry and the Yarrie Mining Academy that resulted from the initial training program is an interesting precursor of the Vocational and Training Centres that have emerged as a result of Andrew Forrest’s Generation One.
That Ngarda report provides a much needed alternative background to the Forrest Training and Employment Review and provides a guide to what is relevant, urgent and substantive in the Forrest Review.
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