Project history

Central Desert Training (CDT) has over 20 years’ experience working in and alongside Aboriginal Communities in Central Australia. Most recently our focus has been across the Barkly Region of Central Australia. Building trust and rapport in remote communities takes time.

Central Desert Training has delivered or administered a range of Aboriginal pre-employment and post-employment training initiatives for a range of Industries such as Horticulture, Mining and Resources, Community Safety, Aged Care, Municipal Services, Community Health and the Australian Defence Force.

Central Desert Training takes a long term approach to skills development in the bush. Our projects are designed with a long term time frame that incorporates both training and post training support services.

We wish to advise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people that this page may contain images of people who have passed away. Please contact us if we need to amend photographs.

Newmont Tanami Operations prevoc program

In 2004 Central Desert Training was engaged to coordinate the delivery of the Course in Pre-Employment for Mining Operations at Newmont’s Granites Gold Mine. The program was known as the “prevoc” course on site. The prevoc program was designed to increase the number of Indigenous people employed at the Granites Gold Mine from the remote Indigenous communities around the mine and Alice Springs.

For ten years, Central Desert Training coordinated the delivery of the program in partnership with the Central Land Council employment unit. The program consistently achieved successful completion rates in excess of 90% for almost all programs with the graduates commencing employment both onsite at the Granites Gold Mine and offsite in Alice Springs. Courses commenced with 12 participants biannually.

The program was developed in partnership with Newmont and included resource industry specific skills and employment related life skills and work experience. The program also included a long term mentoring component to support graduates moving into employment at the Granites. Central Desert Training coordinated supports for New Apprentices from the program and coordinated apprentices across the mine site.

Central Desert Training provided training and employment coordination support services for other Newmont sites including Jundee, Pajingo and Boddington. Almost 20 years later, graduates of the program remain in employment at the Granites.

Barkly Regional Council Core Skills training program

Barkly Regional Council (BRC) employs over 200 staff, of whom about 60-70% are Indigenous, across the very remote Barkly Council Region. The need for a program which would integrate life skills, relevant workplace skills and Language, Literacy and Numeracy (LLN) was identified after a survey and assessment of employees across the Barkly communities in early 2014. By 2022, The program was delivering 70 weeks training annually across the remote communities of Ali Curung, Alpurrurulam, Arlpara, Ampilatwatja, Wutunugurra and Elliot with outlying locations, such as canteen creek, attending training in larger communities.

BRC recognised that the professional development of its remote Indigenous staff was required at four levels. The first is generic employability skills such as licences, identification requirements and police clearances. The second is the foundation skills for the workplace including the LLN skills and understanding of workplace tasks. The third is that staff often commence in their positions without the formal qualifications required for their role. The fourth is difficulty resolving personal issues and broader concerns that impact upon work. The Core Skills mentoring program provided support across all four tiers in a systematic manner with a quality process.

The program was embedded into the day-to-day work routine of the remote Indigenous workforce with training focused on long term task based professional development instead of short term training package requirements.

Feedback from the workplace was overwhelmingly positive with all workplaces rating the performance of the RTO in delivery the training as highly satisfied.

TiTree Horticulture training/mentoring progam

The Ti Tree Horticulture Training Project was delivered on Anmatjere country in a region with an established Horticulture industry that is dominated by table grape production. Historically there have been few local Anmatjere people working on the farms in the region. The project was a collaborative effort between Central Desert Training, Central Desert Shire, Centrelink, the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR), the Northern Territory Department of Education and Training (DET), The Northern Territory Department of Regional Development, Primary Industry, Fisheries and Resources (DRDPIFR), the Central Land Council, Job Futures, Job Find and of course the Anmatjere people. The aim was to cater to the needs of Indigenous learners and provide graduates with the employability skills required to commence work on the farms in the region through a Certificate II in Rural Operations (RTE20703). The project was developed to run over two consecutive years for two groups of trainees and commenced in 2008.

The program was backed with mentoring support where issues such as Literacy and numeracy skills or family or ceremonial issues need to be addressed. The mentoring program extends beyond the period of training to provide support services for graduates after the conclusion of the training phase.

Feedback on the project from the minister can be found on this link: Ministers Feedback

Defence Indigenous Development Program

Central Desert Training was contracted by Australian Commonwealth Government Departments DEEWR and DIIRSTCE to support the Department of Defence to deliver the Defence Indigenous Development Program for two consecutive years. Central Desert Training provided a team of seven support personnel delivering services including Workplace English Language Literacy (WELL) training, mentor services and Employment Coordination Services.

Program outcomes improved consistently after the engagement of Central Desert Training to support the project. Graduates of the program remain in employment with both the Department of Defence and civilian employers.

Katherine remote health services Workplace English Language Literacy (WELL) program.

Central Desert Training was engaged by the Department of Innovation and the Human Services Training Advisory Council to deliver a WELL program to 16 remote health clinics in the Katherine region and the Katherine Hospital. The project supported 103 Indigenous people working in the health sector to meet the needs of the Industry. The project was delivered to Bulla, Timber Creek, Yarralin, Kalkarindji, Mataranka, Minyerri, Jilkminggan, Ngukurr, Beswick, Barunga and Bulman on a regular schedule by our team of specialised LLN practitioners. The project was delivered on target and achieved all associated KPI’s.

An external review of this project can be viewed by clicking this link here: Katherine CDT External Review

Central Land Council ranger WELL program.

Central Desert Training was engaged by the Central Land Council to deliver a WELL program to increase the capacity of Indigenous ranger groups in the completion of their associated work roles and build the capacity of the ranger teams to work independently. The project ran for a period of three years with federal government funding and was now fully funded by the for a number of years. Sessions were held on 10 communities at least fortnightly to more than 100 rangers. Training focused upon direct Language, Literacy and Numeracy support in the workplace for the range of tasks Indigenous rangers were expected to undertake in their role looking after country.

A range of specialised training systems and tools were developed to support the project that provided professional development of rangers at the task level.