Following the launch of our fourth consecutive Reconciliation Action Plan, we spotlight our community partnership with the Clontarf Foundation.
Thiess proudly launched its first national partnership with the Clontarf Foundation as part of its Australia-wide CARE Social Investment Program in 2018.
The aim of the partnership is to support the program’s success in building the confidence and opportunity for Clontarf Foundation students to excel in their education and future employment prospects.
The Clontarf Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation that seeks to improve the education, discipline, self-esteem, life skills and employment prospects of young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men.
Local engagement and delivery
Thiess is progressively introducing and connecting Clontarf Academies, project teams and local communities. The partnership was successfully piloted first at Mount Owen Mine Operation in NSW, then implemented at the Thiess Component Rebuild Centre in Darra, Queensland and Thiess Head Office in Brisbane, Queensland, as well as Hazelmere workshop in Perth, WA.
Thiess focuses its efforts on building relationships between academies and local project teams through:
- Setting up drop-ins to meet and connect with local academies
- Learning about what’s of interest to the students
- Hosting site visits
- Providing opportunities for work experience, traineeships and apprenticeships
- Sharing the student’s academic or sporting success
- Joining in at rugby sessions, carnivals and awards ceremonies
- Participating in employment forums.
Introductory engagement is now underway with the QCoal team and Mackay office team with Clontarf’s Townsville and Mackay Academies, and also in South Australia between our Prominent Hill team and the Port Augusta Academy.
About the Clontarf Foundation
- The Clontarf Foundation operates an educational engagement, behavioural change and life skills programme.
- Clontarf academies are formed in partnership with selected schools and their success is based on the full-time nature of the program and the strength of the relationships between its staff and each Clontarf student.
- In 2022 there were 10,000 students participating in a Clontarf program and 138 academies operating across six states/territories.
- The Clontarf Foundation consistently achieves positive results with a year-to-year apparent retention rate of 90 per cent and above, school attendance rates averaging 80 per cent, and 80 per cent of Year 12 leavers remaining in employment or further study/ training after 12 months of finishing school.