The Murraylands Employment and Skills Formation Network Action Plan 2009-2010 contains the proposals that are anticipated to commence over the current financial year and their associated funding allocations. The Action Plan also contains valuable background information for each project including rationale and links to the objectives and strategies in the Strategic Plan.
There are eleven initiatives scheduled to either commence or continue in this financial year. You can scroll down and read more about the specific initiative:

• Innovation in new Industry
• Murraylands Regional Workforce Capacity Development
• Jobs Without Water
• Supporting Work Experience
• Foundation to Skills Training and Employment
• Career Development Centre (CDC)
• Murraylands Careers Expo
• Ticket for Training
• Aboriginal Learning on Country
• Volunteers Unlimited
• Regional Investment and Jobs Growth Survey

Click on the attached link to download the Murraylands ESF Implementation Plan 2009-2010.

The Murraylands New Industry Support Project will support regional development in new and emerging industries. This will be achieved through training to increase the employability of the South Australia Works in the Regions target groups. Industries targeted will be identified through the MRDB’s Jobs growth and investment survey. Training will be delivered to individuals to take advantage of future opportunities thus building the capacity of the regional workforce.

The focus of the Murraylands Regional Workforce Capacity Development project will be on building regional workforce capacity within existing industries to ensure that workforce skills and labour demand can be met. This will be achieved through training, mentoring and support of South Australia Works in the Region target groups. The focus of this project will be on industries that show evidence of growth or impending growth as identified through the MRDB Jobs Growth and Investment Survey and associated Time Tracker tool.

Jobs without Water will help participants whose employment has been affected by drought. It will offer retrenched, unemployed and underemployed participants individualised support, counselling and mentoring. Participants are helped to recognise and access potential alternate employment streams as identified by the MRDB Jobs growth and investment Survey and Time Tracker tool. A review of this project has highlighted the benefit of this project working in conjunction with the Ticket for Training initiative to fund training for individuals to help them overcome their barriers to employment.

This initiative recognises that one of the biggest barriers to workforce participation particularly for youth and the long-term unemployed is lack of experience. This initiative redressed this issue through engaging participants in real world work experience combined with practical mentoring support to support participants. This support will include employability skills coaching, recognition of employer expectations and appropriate workplace behaviours. This initiative will have two-fold benefits including real-world work experience for participants and exposure to potential new employees for employers.

A major barrier to workforce participation within the Murraylands are low levels of foundation literacy and numeracy skills. This initiative will address foundation literacy and numeracy skills throughout the region with the objective of preparing and supporting participants to undertake foundation literacy and numeracy training and then to either take on further education and or access the labour market. This initiative will focus people of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds, Youth and Indigenous. It will involve mentoring, accredited and non accredited training and support to access other beneficial services on their pathway to employment.

The Murraylands CDC will continue to support South Australia Works in the Regions target groups within the region by enhancing their skills and capabilities. This will be achieved by providing individual career guidance and a number of partnerships with Industry, Schools, Job Networks and service providers. These partnerships will be leveraged so as to extend the services offered to the local community and provide outreach to the entire region. The CDC will continue to engage the MRDB in planning to align career advice and planning with enterprise development in the region.

The Murraylands Career Expo will link participants with programs and career information to assist them to access training and the labour market. Strong industry and community support for the event has been evidenced in growing attendance numbers and the range of partners who support the event including Industry groups, organisations and regional employers.

This initiative works for individuals who can demonstrate a specific employment or training need that requires an immediate one-off response. It will be linked to evidence of an employment outcome but is a flexible initiative that will be monitored for its success.

This initiative will provide training in Certificate II and III in Conservation and Land Management to Aboriginal participants with a partnership approach. Accredited training in conservation and land management will be provided with a view to helping participants build a career within their chosen field. All partners will work in collaboration to mentor and assist participants to access employment opportunities beyond the 1 year scope of the formal training and work provided.

Volunteering is a valuable way for participants to gain the skills confidence and experience needed to enter the workforce. The region currently has a low workforce participation rate which the Volunteers Unlimited initiative seeks to redress. The Volunteers Unlimited initiative will conduct an audit of volunteering opportunities, organisations and initiatives across the region. This information will then be used to coordinate and promote volunteering activities and opportunities across the region as a means to increase workforce participation.

Major research work, building on the 2008 Murraylands Jobs Growth and Investment report and will provide forecast trend information.