Employment pathways for remote indigenous VET students: combining industry demand with culturally appropriate employment support
Authors:
Miriam Forte
Woguntha CAPS
Theme: Indigenous People
Presentation:
How can we improve the post-school employment rates of our remote indigenous VET students? Wongutha CAPS, a VET boarding school for Remote Indigenous Students from across WA, has been working on solutions to this issue for a number of years. Educators have long observed that despite intensive training in industry relevant VET modules, life skills, workplace skills, and extensive work experience, a number of our graduates do not go on to further education or paid employment. If they do, it is often intermittent or unstable. They experience a multitude of economic, cultural, and practical challenges when job seeking, which often leads to long term economic disadvantage. But they also have unique and valuable skills and knowledge to contribute in a wide range of growth industries, if we can offer them culturally relevant and supported job pathways.
Join researcher Miriam Forte as she shares an applied research project looking into the following 3 research areas:
RA 1 - Jobs and Industry in Remote Areas of WA - Current and Future Trends Impacting Employment Priority Areas and Opportunities. (In Progress)
RA 2 - Barriers and Enablers of Employment: Creating Culturally Relevant Employment Pathways for Remote Indigenous School Leavers. (In Progress)
RA3 - Tracking Employment Pathways of Remote Indigenous School Leavers - A Longitudinal Study (Planned 2025 - 2030)
Overarching the project is an awareness that any research questions pertaining to employment outcomes for Remote Indigenous People and Communities are treading the delicate line between a real need for economic development, and a western, colonialised concept of productivity and success, necessitating co-design and interpretation of research with remote indigenous community members.
This research has direct applications for RTO’s catering to remote students across Australia. Results can inform the development of key industry partnerships to form strong and culturally appropriate employment pathways for remote indigenous students.