Jimboomba Community Garden continues to give back to the wider community with the garden on the grounds of Hills International College set to help provide paid traineeships from May.
A limited number of Green Work Skills traineeships will be available at the garden, with successful participants receiving a Certificate 1 in Conservation and Land Management upon completion of the 20 weeks.
The program is a partnership between the garden and Acacia Ridge Community Support Incorporated with successful trainees undertaking work in conservation and rehabilitation, horticultural and light construction work at the garden.
The full-time traineeships which are aimed at people have been long term unemployed will begin on May 2 and finish up on September 15 with trainees working five days a week from 7:30am to 3:30pm, and interested participants need to attend an information session on April 12 according to Jimboomba Community Garden’s Raelee Vearing.
“It is April 12 here at the garden at 10am, so anyone who is interested should come along where we will have a group session and then we interview people individually, so it’s just like a job,” she said.
“There will be 15 places available and there will be two rounds of 20 weeks, the first one starts in May and will run until September and then the next one will start at the end of September and run through until February.”
“My paid job is with Acacia Ridge Community Support Inc and that’s who we are partnering with so they look for host organisations and so through our relationship with the garden I put it forward that we create a program for a traineeship here and we put in the application for the Skilling Queenslanders For Work (SQW) program,” she said.
“We see it as a benefit for the garden because we then have people working here, and we can move forward and maintain and create more spaces, as it can be hard to keep on top of it with volunteers only working every two weeks so it’s a big advantage to have a traineeship.”
“They do the work here but the training is delivered through Greening Australia the RTO (registered training organisation), Busy At Work is the apprenticeship board that will put them through the traineeship program and Hills has given us permission to develop the section of land that runs down to the creek so because it’s conservation and land management it’s not just about gardening and landscaping, eradicating weeds is the big thing as well as re-planting and identifying natives.”
“Hills is very supportive of what we do, with their permission which is always granted, we can continue, and they can’t do anything with that space so that’s an advantage for them, that it becomes something better to look at.”
Vearing said the traineeships will give participants not only a leg up into the workforce but a chance to help conserve native animal habitats.
“The council’s environment department came out here and they identified a few beneficial trees and remnant vegetation in there that should be saved, but there is also platypus identified in the creek and it’s a koala habitat and everyone has seen the kangaroos that move through here, so we are also looking at preserving that natural environment for the native animals,” she said.
Vearing said the focus is on those who have been unable to find gainful employment for some time, but added it is open to people from all backgrounds.
“We look for people who aren’t getting support out there, so they can be on a centrelink benefit but if they’re registered with a job active provider and they are still out of work, then it’s something that we can help them with because part of our support through the program and post the program is helping them to find work,” she said.
“We want them to be successful, that makes the program successful for us.
“It’s quite broad, we could have someone with a disability for they are able to work in the garden that’s ok, indigenous, New Zealand citizens, all people are welcome to apply, come along and have a talk with us.
“It is five days a week and it’s eight hours a day, so you are treated as an employee and the same rules apply for someone who has a job that you have a supervisor and you have to call in if you’re sick, it’s different from work from the dole programs that we have run here, it’s a lot more work like to prepare them for work at the other end.”
Vearing added that all going to plan the traineeships will deliver not only successful outcomes for the participants, but also help shape the future of the garden going forward.
“We have a goal to work towards and the whole thing will take the 12 months at the very least, so we’re hoping after this 12 months, because the SQW funding comes round every 12 months we will reapply in the next round to continue whatever projects we see here as suitable,” she said.
“Making it educational for the community is one of our big goals and visions, so we are looking at indigenous plant s and medicine plans and putting a trail in there where people can walk through and learn about what the indigenous people would have done in this area.”