Napranum Farm Graduates Achieve Goals

Our Skilling Queenslanders for Work (SQW) initiative on the Napranum Farm has seen a number of local trainees secure meaningful employment, demonstrating the positive impact these projects can provide.  

 

The Napranum Farm project gave trainees the chance to gain the skills and experience required to enter, and stay, in the workforce, by helping to grow the Council-Owned  community garden. The initiative was co-designed with local stakeholders and Traditional Owners in April this year and sought to revitalise the community asset to help provide for the remote Western Cape township. It’s success can be seen already, with six of the eight graduates now having secured ongoing employment.

 

Since graduating in mid-October, all four female trainees have started casual work as surveyors with mining giant Rio Tinto, assisting with revegetation and repatriation programs around their Western Cape operations while Auda Wapau has joined the Australian Defence Force. Damien John impressed local Napranum employer Robert Wigness Contracting so much, he’s been recruited to join previous SQW graduate Jack Miller at the business. COE program manager Scott McAllister says it’s a fitting reward for the perseverance the participants showed. 

 

 

“I’m so impressed with the resilience of the trainees,” said Scott “In this project the participants had to deal with every single challenge that remote work can throw at you, and they just kept showing up and trying their absolute hardest. 

 

“It’s also testament to the importance of community mentoring, which was again provided for this project by Jack Wipa and Shaun Hall from the Na’Muk’A’Run Mob. These guys went over and above throughout the project to help keep the trainees motivated and the project progressing.”  

 

This persistence and support is what saw the eight successful participants awarded their certificate 1 in conservation and land management at a graduation ceremony at Weipa’s Albatross Hotel attended by Kukunathi staff and Boardmembers and COE and My Pathway staff. Congratulations to  Latonia Ara, Laura Budby, Rozita Hudson, Taita Budby, Damien John, John Motton, Pharlen Hudson and Samuel Namai. 

 

The project was made possible through strong partnerships between Napranum Aboriginal Shire Council, Kuku’nathi Services, The Na’Muk’A’run Mob, The Department of Employment, Small Business and Training (DESBT) and Community Owned Enterprises (COE).  

 

 

Skilling Queenslanders for Work projects are an initiative of and proudly funded by the Queensland Government.