Queensland’s Mackay City Council acts as a Learning Centre

Mackay City Council is offering school leavers 12 month Council Traineeships as an alternative to University and at the same time is addressing staff shortages.

To assist trainees and apprentices gain skills in a practical working environment, Council provides inhouse resources, workplace supervision, on the job training and a dedicated Organisational Learning and Development Adviser.

This helps them identify future employment, training or education opportunities before actually taking up tertiary studies. This is one way to stop the flow of talented local youth to metropolitan areas says Mackay Council CEO Ken Gouldthorp.

The Council attracts State Government funding of around $400,000 each year from the ‘Breaking the Unemployment Cycle – First Start Program’. One of the trainees, Jemma Carey, started a Business Administration traineeship with the Council last year and completed all her TAFE competency modules in half the required time. Her supervisors encouraged her to take her studies further and she has been accepted into a Bachelor of Internet Communication at Central Queensland University Mackay.

For further info contact Amanda Johns 07 4968 4444.