Indigenous unemployment has become a major issue in this country, with Australian Bureau of Statistics figures released last year showing unemployment among indigenous Australians, while improving, was still more than three times the non-indigenous unemployment rate.

However, the Australian Employment Covenant – the brainchild of Fortescue Metals Group chief executive officer Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest – is looking to change this.

The AEC – an initiative between indigenous Australians, employers and the government – is targeting the placement and retention of 50,000 indigenous people into covenant jobs, and the provision of 50,000 workplace mentors and employer-specific training programs.

Since the AEC was launched in October last year, more than 70 companies have pledged to create over 12,000 jobs.

AEC chief executive officer Malcolm James told MiningNewsPremium.net that despite the economic downturn, Australian industries were still committed to getting indigenous people into the workforce.

“With mining companies, we have quite a high level of interest from the big and middle-tier miners in particular,” James said.

“Obviously, with the current economic situation, the timeframe between a commitment and a vacancy coming together is somewhat longer than would have otherwise been expected.

“But this works to our advantage in that we are able to make sure that the government has got the training in line with what employers will require and also it means when the jobs do become available, they are sustainable jobs and not jobs that will disappear in a short timeframe.”

The AEC is planning to have the 50,000 commitments in place by the end of next year.

“We are looking to have 50,000 commitments in the shortest possible time that we can...and then work towards progressively filling those [positions],” James said.

“Because of the way we have designed this for employers, they get to take the people when they need them and where they need them and trained how they need them. So the decision as to when jobs actually become vacant is left to the companies.”

James said a successful outcome would be for an individual to remain in a job for 26 weeks.

“I think the really important issue is that we focus on the number of jobs promised and then we do whatever it takes to make sure those jobs are filled and the people remain in those jobs,” he said.

“We would look to make sure that people stayed in those jobs or used those jobs to advance themselves rather than just finishing those 26 weeks and disappearing.”

The federal government is providing $2.2 million to AEC over two years through its structured training and employment projects (STEP) for pre-employment training for recruits, a mentoring program, an indigenous employment coordinator and cultural awareness training for existing staff.

Earlier this year, one of Australia’s largest entertainment groups, Crown, became the first employer to begin recruitment and training under the AEC.

The project will see the recruitment of 300 indigenous people in hospitality, gaming, security and allied industries at the Crown and Burswood entertainment complexes.

James urged companies to contact the AEC and visit the website, www.fiftythousandjobs.com.au, to find out more about the initiative.

“If you look at the demographic … a large part of the workforce is going to be sourced from indigenous people in the years ahead and as the demographics change,” he added.

“The indigenous population is the fastest-growing sector of our population at the moment and looks like it is going to continue.”