QANTASLINK chief executive John Gissing might have taken some sporting tips on board when he touched down in Tamworth yesterday, but he scored even more highly when it came to giving top marks to some young students who are on a bright career path with the airline.
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Year 11 student Tom Hammond is one of two school-based trainees QantasLink employed this year in a groundbreaking Indigenous program.
And yesterday he had the honour of being tour leader to some of his class mates and some senior airline management as they inspected the site of the first regional base for the national program.
Besides going to school, Tom works at the engineering hangar as part of his Indigenous school-based traineeship.
According to a spokeswoman, Tom’s been working at the heavy maintenance base at the airport since January this year, and is having discussions about starting up his apprenticeship with Qantas once he finishes Year 12. Under the program Tom works one day a week during the term and fulltime in the school holidays.
As part of the fly-in, senior QantasLink executives visited the Oxley Clontarf Academy at Oxley High School, where an emphasis is on improving the employment and education prospects of young Aboriginal males. They took some tips from the kids when it came to an impromptu touch footy match up too.
Mr Gissing said Tamworth was the first regional community to benefit from an expansion of the Qantas group’s Indigenous program, which has previously only been available in major capital cities and now numbers 50 young people.
The expansion to Tamworth was a demonstration of the airline’s ongoing support for regional communities, he said.
“It’s quite fitting that Tamworth is the first regional location for Qantas’s Indigenous traineeship, as QantasLink’s roots began in Tamworth back in 1949,” he said.
“It’s fantastic that we’ve been able to create opportunities for Indigenous school-based trainees to not only work alongside our amazing team here in Tamworth, but also have the option to gain work experience in their home town.
“As the national carrier, we are more than just an airline – we are deeply embedded in the Tamworth community, and having the relationship with Oxley and Clontarf further cements our position here.”
QantasLink employs more than 100 people in Tamworth Oxley High School principal Simon Bartlett-Taylor said the traineeship was a great opportunity for the Oxley Clontarf Academy students.
“We’re excited to have QantasLink working with our Clontarf boys to enhance their education and offer them real-life experience in the aviation industry,” Mr Bartlett-Taylor said.
It was a plus for them to visit the school and reinforced the impression the students are important, even to the leaders of an iconic company like Qantas.
The Clontarf Foundation principle is to improve the education, discipline, life skills, self-esteem and employment prospects of young Aboriginal men and therefore equip them to participate meaningfully in society.
The Tamworth academy at Oxley was the first to launch in NSW in 2012, and according to supporters has enjoyed increased positive outcomes for boys from Year 7 to 12.
