BMD partner on training with BoysTown and Civil Train

BMD Group recently launched an Indigenous Training Initiative aimed at providing long-term opportunities to Indigenous Australians looking to gain entry back into the workforce.

The Commonwealth Games will be one of Queensland’s biggest sporting events of the decade when athletes from across the world converge on the Gold Coast in 2018. BMD has been awarded the Parklands Project contract, to build the infrastructure required for the Commonwealth Games Village which will house the athletes and provide facilities for the sporting events to take place.

Early on, BMD identified that local knowledge and understanding of the complexities of the working environment were going to be paramount to deliver such an important piece of infrastructure.

Rebecca Reeves, BMD Training Coordinator said that with limited construction on the Gold Coast in recent years, BMD sought to secure an available pool of personnel looking to get back into the local industry through this key project.

“In order to build a highly capable and efficient workforce, BMD was keen to expand upon their long history of Indigenous engagement on a broad scale by implementing an Indigenous Training pilot program and drawing from this existing pool of personnel,” she said.

Partnering with BoysTown, the program was launched in September 2014, with an information session held at the Parklands Project site office.

After this session a tailored training package was delivered by Civil Train Queensland in September over five consecutive days at the training centre in Eight Mile Plains. The package resulted in a range of nationally recognised competencies including a Construction Industry White Card and a number of competency units from the Certificate III in Civil Construction Traineeship being successfully completed.  BMD selected these units to provide participants with a solid foundation of construction knowledge prior to commencing on site.  Civil Train trainers worked closely with all of the participants to ensure they got the maximum value from each of the sessions. Ian Montellier, lead trainer, commented on how impressed he was with their commitment and enthusiasm. In addition, BoysTown provided an Indigenous mentor who attended the training program and worked with the participants to ensure they were work ready.

The key aims for the program were to assist in ending welfare dependency and employment disparity through meaningful employment and provide nationally recognised training competencies for participants who would then build careers within the construction industry.

Successful applicants through the pre-employment training programs commenced working with BMD at the Parklands project in early October.  Following an initial probation period, BMD intend to provide Indigenous employees with the opportunity to participate in a traineeship.  The traineeship will allow them to complete the remaining competencies in the Certificate III in Civil Construction, which was commenced during the pre-employment training program.  It is hoped that these participants will be able to complete their traineeships while working on the Parklands project, before moving into further opportunities with BMD.

Ms Reeves said the key point of difference for this initiative from other programs, is that BMD are offering assistance not only to the individuals that are employed directly through the program but by also offering accredited training through Civil Train to a number of other individuals who participate in the pre-employment training, which should assist them to find employment within the industry at another organisation.

Civil Train hope to conduct more pre-employment tailored training solutions in the future by partnering with industry. The week culminated with the presentation of awards to the participants followed by a BBQ lunch with Civil Train staff.

BMD is a national group of companies engaged in engineering design, construction and land development for clients and partners in the urban development, transport infrastructure, resources and energy sectors.

Since 1979, BMD has employed a relationship based business model founded on certainty, collaboration and performance.

With approximately 1,700 staff throughout Australia, BMD has the resources and experience to deliver projects ranging in size from $1 million to over $1 billion.