About

Background
Mission Statement
Who We Are
What We Do

Background

Dean Rioli and Christian Gaylard originally started their indigenous employment strategy in 2006 with the support of the Victorian Government and the ETU, the program was called the Indigenous Apprenticeship Program (IAP) . IAP was funded and supported for two years by the ETU and State Government. In that time, IAP successfully placed over 50 Indigenous young people into the electrical and allied trades.

IAP realised that they could help more indigenous people obtain sustainable employment with a larger network of industry and various trades. Sports Health Check Australia a health promotion charity and IAP partnered in 2008 to form DRAES.

In 2009 The Dean Rioli Aboriginal Employment Service (DRAES) - newly funded program of Sports Health Check Australia , was officially launched in the week of the AFL Grand Final by Jacinta Allan, Victorian Minister for Skills and Workforce Participation.

A partnership between the State and Federal Government is funding DRAES $1 million over the next 2 years. The funding is directed toward the project with aim to place 100 young Indigenous people into sustainable employment.

Skills and Workforce Participation Minister Jacinta Allan announced the Dean Rioli Aboriginal Employment Service (DRAES) as the agency that will deliver the $1 million Deadly Jobs, Deadly Pathways initiative to as many as 100 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander jobseekers.

“With Victoria’s 30,000-strong indigenous community facing low school retention rates, lack of post school qualifications and, as a result, greater unemployment, I am pleased to be able to announce this new initiative that will encourage more indigenous people into employment,” Ms Allan said.

“Victoria is facing skills shortages in a number of areas including construction and the Deadly Jobs, Deadly Pathways initiative will develop and guide indigenous people into industries facing these shortages.”

The DRAES program was also accepted on to the Indigenous Employment Panel (IEP). The IEP is set up by Federal Government and works with Employers, Programs and communities to get the right Employment and Mentoring service for each community. We won our position on the panel via a competitive tender process.

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Mission Statement

DRAES seeks to become the agency of choice by communities to expand sustainable employment opportunities for Indigenous men and women, leading to individual income stability.

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Who We Are

DRAES is a service available for Indigenous Australians to help them gain employment opportunity that they really want. We will not place Indigenous people into employment for the sake of an outcome. A part of our service is that we sit down with the persons and find out exactly what interests them , look at what they are suited to and then give them some options of various career paths.

DRAES staff work to ensure all participants have established pathways into employment, are job ready and are provided with mentoring for their first twelve months. They utilise their extensive network of industry and training partners to assist in identifying and linking young people to:

• Potential employers including major industry employers.
• The network of union organisers who are proactive in their support of the project and provide advice when job vacancies or issues arise in the workplace.
• Local training providers and
• School

Once a placement is identified and the young person is matched to it, they enter into a direct training/employment arrangement with that employer, training provider or school.

This arrangement identifies clearly the expectations, each other’s role, contact points and the role of the mentor in the program with all parties agreeing on the set pathway.

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What We Do

We will help Indigenous people find employment opportunities in various industries, relate the skill base to the job specification and organise the pre employment qualifications that are needed before they are able to commence in the industry.

DRAES acts as a link for indigenous people between employers, industry and unions.

Dean and Christian offer 24/7 mentoring for all our participants to help them feel confident in their new employment position.

For employers ,we are a very good tool to help with any issues they may face with a young Indigenous person that they may not understand. We do offer cultural awareness training for employers that may be employing a young Indigenous person for the first time.

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