Moree Clontarf students skill-up with help from the Inland Rail Skills Academy

The Year 10-12 students took part in a ‘Working at Heights’ and ‘Confined Spaces’ course held at Moree TAFE between 7-9 March, 2023, to help them progress with their training and encourage them to further their civil construction studies.

The Inland Rail Skills Academy partnership with the Clontarf Foundation supports the education, training, and employment of Indigenous youth in communities along the Inland Rail alignment.

The Inland Rail Skills Academy is providing $500,000 in funding, over two years, through the Inland Rail Skills Academy to support fourteen Clontarf Academies along the rail corridor in Queensland and New South Wales.

This funding is helping to boost school retention, develop leadership skills and create pathways to employment through training opportunities for Indigenous regional youth.

For more information visit the Inland Rail website.

ARTC Inland Rail Acting Chief Executive Rebecca Pickering said:

‘The students were thrilled to undertake industry specific training before finishing school, in the hope of gaining employment in the construction industry, or even on Inland Rail after their school years’.

‘ARTC Inland Rail supports the Clontarf Foundation’s goal of improving the education, life skills, self-esteem and employment prospects of our Indigenous youth, and together, through the Inland Rail Skills Academy, we are providing structure and daily support for Indigenous youth in schools across Australia’.

‘Inland Rail is not only changing the way Australia moves freight but is acting as a catalyst for positive change in many regional communities along the rail alignment.

‘A major focus of Inland Rail has been to build skills in these communities to maximise the potential for local participation in this once-in-a-generation project and others in the future.

‘This partnership between the Academy and Clontarf is delivering programs which build skills and prosperity in local communities.

‘We need to have people ready to capitalise on the opportunities that Inland Rail will bring, and the Inland Rail Skills Academy is about facilitating opportunities for those willing to take the first step on that journey.

‘We are committed to playing our part in upskilling the nation and ensuring that different groups of people are given the opportunity to help build Inland Rail’.

Clontarf Supervisor for Moree Edward Saunders said:

‘It’s a great opportunity, especially for the smaller rural communities, for the boys to receive training that they can use when they finish school and enter the workforce.

‘It’s great for their resume if they are applying for school-based apprenticeships, and I’d like to thank Inland Rail Skills Academy for providing the training for the boys’.