Community
25 November, 2023
Outstanding successes
INDIGENOUS-owned and Cairns based company Australian Training Works Group have been awarded the Indigenous Excellence award at the 2024 Queensland Telstra Excellence Awards for their outstanding achievements in creating job outcomes and economic impact for First Nations’ communities.
Founded in 2016 by Yarrabah Gunggandji Traditional Owners and brothers Tony and Ashley Martens, ATW looked to address a gap in lack of preparation for First Nations people to enter the job market, assisting from the recruitment stage to post job outcomes in sectors ranging from construction, health, energy and more through a culturally sensitive framework.
“Working in public service, Ashley and I saw a big gap around First Nations people and their families not being prepared for opportunities beyond school,” co-founder Tony Martens said.
“It was frustrating to see all this expenditure that goes into Indigenous education, and then having a look at the national data that shows that 60 per cent of First Nations students that finish year 12 end up not going into further education, or full-time employment.
“So we set up a group training organisation, meaning we are a legal employer of apprentices and trainees; we work with young people and their families to provide a school based apprenticeship as a way of preparing them for a qualification or a job opportunity after school.”
Mr Martens said the group was honoured to receive the award and hoped that more visibility was shone on other Indigenous businesses.
“Through this recognition and through our success we want the government to support other Indigenous businesses,” he said.
“This is our Country in FNQ, and this is where our kin networks are, so it’s important to us to represent the region and also show the southeast Queensland that we have the expertise to compete with their industries.”
General manager at ATW Daijah Martens said the group intended to expand and keep creating more opportunities for First Nations in the future.
“We face a lot of barriers to employment because of the assumptions there are out there about First Nations but we as an Indigenous business are able to recognise those barriers and find appropriate ways to overcome them,” she said.
“We see employment and training as a sustainable way to create more opportunities and access for our community.
“In the future we’d also like to enter other jurisdictions and sectors we haven’t worked with and show mainstream Australia that we can provide services to them not only First Nations.”
