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Transcript
The current skills shortage in Australia means that employers need to think innovatively about how to attract and retain skilled staff.
As demonstrated by Hunter New England Area Health Service, taking on an apprentice or trainee is a good way to attract, train and retain employees to meet the specific needs of your business or industry.
‘Hunter New England Area Health Service is the largest employer in the whole of our region’, states Terry Clout, Chief Executive Officer. ‘We believe that we need in our employees a diversity of skills and also experiences if we wish to enrich our workforce. We also believe that full time employment is a major contributor to good health and wellbeing and, therefore, we want to make sure that everyone has that opportunity and that people who have disability have the opportunity to enrich our workforce’.
‘We also should ensure that our workforce reflects the community. And there are many people in the community who have disability and, therefore, our workforce should reflect that’.
Emma Davies, Equal Employment Opportunity Coordinator at Hunter New England Area Health Service says, ‘We have targeted positions for our disabled apprenticeship and traineeship program, and those applicants participate through our recruitment process, which is merit-based’.
One apprentice plumber at Hunter New England Area Health Service is Daniel Majkic: ‘Out of working here, I feel very proud and feel like I've accomplished something through the activities and things I do, the jobs I've done. And to move somewhere else and to find such a good job and do the things I do is great. I just get a whole lot of enjoyment out of it’.
Emma advises: ‘I guess some people may be hesitant in employing people with disability because there's a misconception that they require more effort, that they need extra assistance, but that's not always the case. A lot of our employees contribute to our organisation and don't require any assistance. A lot of people, you wouldn't even know that they had a disability. So I think there's a lot of misconceptions there’.
‘We would definitely encourage other businesses to employ people with disabilities. They bring so many skills, talents and abilities to our organisation and they work as valuable employees’.
Strengthen your business by employing people with disability.
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