- Cook
Government supports 13 graduates to complete Aboriginal Business Leadership Initiative
Program
- Program
helping to increase leadership, business knowledge, and employment
opportunities in the Gascoyne
The Cook Government is supporting Aboriginal businesses in the State's
north to grow, through a six-month training program aimed at improving business
knowledge and skills.
The 13 graduates of the Gascoyne Aboriginal Business Leadership
Initiative Program (GABLI) are being recognised at a Graduation Ceremony at the
Gwoonwardu Mia Gascoyne Aboriginal Heritage and Cultural Centre in Carnarvon
today.
GABLI is delivered by the Better Heart Aboriginal Corporation, and is supported
by the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, along with the
Gascoyne Development Commission. The GABLI has provided Aboriginal
businesspeople with increased business knowledge, employment opportunities and
confidence to continue to build their businesses.
The Aboriginal graduates, who are either
existing small business owners, or who aspire to start up their own small
business, have been supported to develop their business ideas through extensive
mentoring, with the use of action planning techniques to make practical
progress with their business goals, and to develop their business skills and
knowledge.
Mentoring
sessions have been delivered and complimented by targeted business workshops on
topics such as self-care in business, business financials, marketing, growth
strategies and business leadership.
The
successful GABLI graduates have now been linked to local, regional and State
support networks to ensure their positive momentum can continue.
Comments attributed to Regional Development Minister Don Punch:
"This leadership program has been a great initiative and
given existing and emerging entrepreneurs the skills, knowledge and confidence
to take their enterprises to the next level.
"This Gascoyne program has been delivered by a graduate from
the Wheatbelt program, making it the first time the program has been delivered
by an Aboriginal business since it started in 2017.
"The program has been successfully delivered in the
Gascoyne, Mid West, Goldfields, Wheatbelt, Great Southern, and South West
regions, and has collectively supported 72 Aboriginal start-up businesses.
"I congratulate and commend these
latest graduates on their tenacity, commitment and willingness to inspire other
Aboriginal businesses and start-ups in the region."
