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Goodstart recognised at Gala Dinner for commitment to young Indigenous people
Freya Lucas
Feb 13, 2019
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Early childhood education and care (ECEC) provider, Goodstart Early Learning, has been recognised for its commitment to providing career pathways for young Indigenous people at an awards dinner held earlier in February.
CareerTrackers, hosts of the Gala Dinner at which Goodstart was recognised, was created in 2009 and is a national not-for-profit organisation, which has the goal of creating pathways and support systems for Indigenous young adults to attend and graduate from university with high marks, sector or industry experience, and “bright professional futures”. By 2020, it is anticipated that the Alumni community from CareerTrackers will be made up of 1,073 “highly educated Indigenous professionals”.Goodstart employee Simone Miller, workforce pathways, partnerships and diversity manager, was awarded the Intern Manager of the Year award in the Gala Dinner ceremony.
“I feel so fortunate to lead this incredible program which is directly supporting our commitment to reconciliation and increasing our workforce participation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait islanders,” Ms Miller said.
“Best of all, we’re seeing our intern numbers grow each year and our interns are wanting to return a second and third year, which tells me they are equally valuing their experience working at Goodstart.”
Ms Miller said the award was “an amazing testament to the strength of our program and overall, a credit to Goodstart’s ongoing investment to achieving its Reconciliation Action Plan targets.”
Goodstart Social Impact General Manager Myra Geddes said the award was a great recognition of Ms Miller’s efforts, and of Goodstart's commitment to inclusion and diversity.
“Simone has been working incredibly hard to lead this important work for a number of years with the support of centre directors, educators and CSO teams, and this award is testament to her great leadership,” Ms Geddes said, adding that the award was an important part of driving positive change within Goodstart and the ECEC sector as a whole.
Over four years of being involved with CareerTrackers, Goodstart has increased their annual intake of Indigenous university student interns from three to 14, with a view to increasing the capacity to 20 interns by 2020.
“We make investment in these programs because evidence shows diversity is good for children, and particularly that it will help us improve outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who are more likely to start school behind their peers. It also marks another step in our progress towards reconciliation.” Ms Geddes said.
Further information about CareerTrackers can be found on their website.
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