Insights
More than just housing - boosting skills and employment opportunity in remote indigenous communities
Posted June 15, 2006
Lessons Learned From The T&E Program
There have been some important lessons learned during the initial run of the T & E Program. Timeframes involved in delivering T&E housing were substantially longer than expected, and in some cases this resulted in less housing being constructed. This was due mainly to the inefficiencies associated with having one project manager for training and construction. This shortfall has now been addressed and the second run of the T&E program has seen these roles separated. In addition, the project manager of the construction side of the T & E houses is now contractually bound to deliver the houses according to the budget allowed for construction, regardless of progress with training. In practice, this means the construction of T & E houses will not be slowed to enable the training program to keep up.
The T & E Program also showed how vitally important it was that communities were ‘ready’ to implement the Program throughout its life. Of the communities initially selected, one was withdrawn as it was not considered that it had the capacity to provide, motivate and manage suitable trainee participants. The withdrawal occurred after the Program had commenced and significant costs had already been incurred. A needs assessment, that is couched in a wider regional framework and takes into account benchmarks of communities’ ‘readiness’, is considered essential to providing good outcomes for Indigenous communities.
Conclusion
Training and employment programs can provide the basis for the development of more sound and independent economies for remote indigenous communities. The Indigenous housing sector has demonstrated an approach that ought to be just as achievable in other sectors critical to remote Indigenous communities, such as education and health.
Fundamental to the approach are partnerships between government and remote communities. The role of the government is to not only establish, (initially) fund and implement the programs, but to assist in finding ways to increase and support the capacity of communities to manage the programs. Once the right capacity is present, both the government and remote communities have a role to ensure that training progresses to its completion.
The evaluation of the CRM has shown, however, that real employment opportunities for local communities must be present if sustainable outcomes are to result. Gains in real employment are vital if remote areas are to claim back many of the economically valuable roles currently played by ‘outsiders’. This would allow for better retention of economic wealth within remote communities and it may also be the first vital step in achieving the ultimate aim of creating sustainable Indigenous Industries, a goal that is held by many people within Indigenous communities.
[1] The CRM was applied to 15 remote Indigenous communities within the CRR.