Despite government policy and initiatives for remote areas, indigenous people are amongst the most disadvantaged and do exhibit higher levels of unemployment in the Australian community. A number of commentators have suggested that better educational opportunities for this minority group will considerably improve their socio-economic status and employment opportunities. This myth is exposed in this article, which reports evidence from an educational–vocational programme for Yolngu who are the indigenous people of East Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. The Arnhem Learning Education and Regional Training (ALERT) programme is conducted, mainly at Nhunlunbuy, in partnership with Rio Tinto Alcan and the Charles Darwin University, with the primary objective of preparing indigenous people for mainstream sustainable jobs. The presented content suggests that while higher educational status is important, this sole strategy is unlikely to comprehensively address outstanding issues that are confronting indigenous people and their labour market concerns.

Australian Indigenous people continue to experience low economic independence and acknowledged social dislocations believed to be underpinned by unattractive levels of participation in the labour market. Recent legal developments provide foundation for mining operators, the Australian governments, and Indigenous traditional owners to negotiate land-use agreements that feature commitment to deliver greater training and employment prospects for Aboriginal people. However, aspirations of Australian Indigenous people, who are deficient in written English expression, to obtain entry to new mainstream jobs are seriously curbed when confronted with recruitment processes requiring competencies in English reading and writing skills. In this paper is reported an assessment of an innovative recruitment process, devoid of the need to demonstrate English literacy skills, for Indigenous people seeking mainstream jobs in the mining sector. The relative features of the scheme are discussed in the context of a multinational mining company operating in northern Australia.

Management for a decade. His vocational background has been in teaching, engineering as well as academia, and he has published in the fields of education, engineering and management. Sandra Daff was recently awarded the Graduate Certificate in Community Relations by the University of Queensland. Her vocational career began in the Western Australian Government Water Corporation. Later, in the Alcan Department of Community Services she designed and administered the inaugural ALERT Indigenous educational vocational initiative at Nhulunbuy, and has continued to provide leadership for the management and coordination of the programme. Sandra has been involved in a series of publications reporting outcomes of the ALERT initiative.

This study aimed to identify employment barriers experienced by long-term working Indigenous Australians so that initiatives can be taken to ensure their social inclusion and participation in the workplace. A qualitative approach was carried out by interviewing 25 Australian Indigenous people in Nhulunbuy. The participants were without employment prospects and so embraced a vocational educational training (VET) program that enabled them to transition into sustainable jobs in small businesses and the mining sector. A qualitative analysis that employed the Leximancer process using data of comprehensive interviews recorded respondents’ experiences from being unemployed to the sustainable different states of wellbeing associated with long-term employment. The participants showed preparedness to confront entrenched barriers to employment in the Australian labor market, but their residual participation was a function of preferences as well as aspirations of cultural attachment. This paper offers helpful advice to decision makers at the national level to redress the high rate of Indigenous unemployment. The key message of our research is that government policies that pursue the ideal of socioeconomic equality need to examine the values of cultural diversity and differences to ensure Indigenous people successfully participate in Australian mainstream society.