pathways to employment project overview: enterprising pathways stakeholder workshop
TRANSCRIPT
Both-Ways Tertiary Education and Research
Pathways to Employment Project Eva McRae-Williams
Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic
Participation
CRC-REP Goals:
1. To develop new ways to build resilience and strengthen regional
communities and economies across remote Australia.
2. To build new enterprises and strengthen existing industries that,
provide jobs, livelihoods and incomes in remote areas.
3. To improve the education and training pathways in remote areas
so that people have better opportunities to participate in the
range of economies that exist.
For more info see http://crc-rep.com/
The CRC-REP Research Projects
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
Pathways to Employment
Interplay - Health, Wellbeing, Education and Employment
Remote Education Systems
Pathways Project Structure
• 5 Year Duration 2012 to June 2016
• PRL (part-time role)
• 1 Honours Student, UniSA
• Collaboration with the Remote Education Systems Project
Research Questions
• How do Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people who reside
in (very) remote communities navigate their way into meaningful
livelihoods?
• What kinds of work might help to support sustainable livelihood
outcomes?
• What kinds of learning could support meaningful livelihood
agendas, aspirations and pathways?
3 Case Studies
• Microenterprise development as a pathway to livelihood
• Economic participation pathways for Anangu youth
• Learning experiences & employment aspirations of inmates
Honours Project
• Dreams and Aspirations of mobile young Aboriginal people
• Census analysis in collaboration with RES project
• Participation/observation in a range of stakeholder activities
No ‘Real’ Jobs in Very Remote Australia?
Total number of jobs (place of enumeration): 106, 437
Indigenous
non-Indigenous
not stated
Very Remote Employees
Without Qualification
Up to Cert II
Cert III & IV
Diploma +
Source ABS (2011) see Guenther and McRae-Williams (2014) for
breakdowns per industry
Engagement in the Economy = Good
GO TO SCHOOL EVERYDAY
GET CERTIFICATE III OR ABOVE
EMPLOYMENT
Industry of employment for non-Indigenous and Aboriginal workers, Very
Remote Australia, 2011. Source: (ABS, 2012) based on place of enumeration
Deficit Models
A focus on barriers or gaps that need to be overcome.
• lack of English literacy and numeracy
• lack of ‘appropriate’ work behaviours
Human Capital Model
Individuals are
motivated to learn
because it will help
them to get a job so
they can get money –
which will make them
happy
Enterprise & Entrepreneurship and Entreprenering
It is from an investment in Belonging
to Family- Community –Country
that a personal and community investment in the economy
can also grow and flourish
• Learning that is voluntary and negotiated
• Learning that strengthens or extends rather than fights cultural
identity
• Learning the builds confidence for negotiating identity
transformations and builds decision making capabilities
• Work that has local legitimacy and support
• Work that is about more than turning up on time (investment)
• Work that is not separate from family life and obligation
Key Points
• Currently the system is not working well
• Different interpretations of what constitutes a real job
• Deficit models are dominant
• Cultural identity is seen as a barrier rather than an
enabler
• Client buy in to some/many pathways is limited
• What are the essential elements that really make
someone employable (in the remote context)?