Indigenous careers on right track

Most university students struggle to balance study with paid work, particularly when they have to move out of a supportive family home.

For Indigenous students, it can be even more challenging if they are the first ones in their family to attend university or have travelled from regional or remote areas to complete a degree.

Since 2009, one organisation has taken a leadership role in trying to boost the graduation rates of pre-professional Indigenous students.

CareerTrackers is focused on supporting Indigenous university students on a pathway to professional careers.

The national not-for-profit organisation believes Indigenous people should have the opportunity and freedom to choose and be represented across all levels and in all occupations, industries and workplaces.

The CareerTrackers model is based on multi-year internships that allow students to focus exclusively on learning during semesters while undertaking paid work during extended holiday university breaks.

Students are assigned a sponsor organisation that becomes their employer.

Sponsors can include small to medium-sized enterprises and have included companies such as Qantas, National Australia Bank, GHD, Moody’s, Telstra, Westpac and Lendlease, many of which have been associated with CareerTrackers for more than 10 years.

Sponsor organisations offer paid employment (internships) of up to 16 weeks each year. Their goal, of course, is to convert an intern to a full-time employee upon graduation.

Initial sponsor placements are facilitated by a CareerTrackers adviser, who then acts as a liaison officer throughout the student’s internship.

Internships tend to be restricted to students in professional degree programs such as law, medicine, business, information technology and engineering.

CareerTrackers also organises an annual gala awards program to celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander excellence in categories such as academic excellence and community spirit.

According to the CareerTrackers website, its model: “Has been adopted across the globe by different organisations, all who share the same purpse – to change the lives of young people.”

CareerTrackers says its program is modelled on INROADS, an American organisation that creates internship opportunities for African American students and has a 50-year legacy of defining new generations of leadership.

CareerTrackers’ founder, Michael Combs, an African American who moved to Australia to take up an employment opportunity, was an alumnus of the INROADS program and recognised the need for something similar for Indigenous youth in Australia.

The success of CareerTrackers helped to create a sister organisation, CareerSeekers, in 2015 to support Australia’s refugee and asylum seekers into professional employment.

In addition to assisting university students, CareerSeekers assists mid-career professionals with existing qualifications and experience to re-establish their careers in Australia.

The effectiveness of CareerTrackers in Australia has inspired TupuToa in New Zealand to support more than 500 M›ori and Pasifika students into internships. TupuToa was launched in 2014 after its founder visited Australia to learn more about CareerTrackers.

CareerTrackers has supported more than 3,000 internships. Not all graduates end up working for their sponsor as many students – with solid work experience behind them – find themselves with multiple job offers following graduation.

While the graduation rate for Indigenous Australians who commence university is thought to sit below 50 per cent, more than 90 per cent of participants in CareerTrackers complete their studies.

It would be naive to think that Indigenous disadvantage can be entirely addressed by internships linking graduates with employers.

Nonetheless, with a university degree a key factor in eliminating the disparity in employment rates between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, continued high completion rates of CareerTrackers internships can be a game changer.

While many employers will seek out CareerTrackers to advance their reconciliation action plans, many will also recognise that it makes exceptional business sense to tap into a talented pool of individuals who add to the diversity of their organisations and who, through their internships, are job-ready and can hit the ground running.

CareerTrackers and CareerSeekers hold much potential for students from other equity groups and, in particular, university students with a disability who continue to be underrepresented in our workplaces.

As the team at CareerTrackers will tell you, they provide huge opportunities that can have an enormous impact on people and workplaces around the country.

• Professor Gary Martin is chief executive officer of the Australian Institute of Management WA