Remote Career Pathways

Remote Career Pathways strives to work with stakeholders to support the development of strong, sustainable local career opportunities across Central Australia . My approach is based on careful analysis, practical solutions, and a focus on creating real jobs that benefit communities.Lisa holds a Diploma in Mental Health Support and a Bachelor’s Degree in Counselling from Otago Polytechnic (New Zealand), as well as a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from Monash University. She has lived in Central Australia for nearly ten years and has worked across the social services sector during that time. This experience has given her a strong understanding of both the challenges and the opportunities for building meaningful career pathways in remote communities.Before moving to Central Australia, Lisa worked in continuous improvement and lean systems, helping organisations work more effectively by reducing waste, improving services, and making better use of resources. She now applies this expertise to community development.An example includes a recent analysis of housing maintenance services across more than 3,400 homes across Central Australia. This work identified opportunities to create over 100 jobs within communities, improve the quality of housing, and reduce the cost of maintenance delivery, while also supporting progress toward national Closing the Gap targets.If you’d like to learn more about this work, or explore how your service could be improved through practical, data-informed approaches, Lisa can be contacted using the link below.

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“Teach a man to fish…”
An analysis of trades capacity and productivity in Central Australia

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Executive Summary

• There are trade shortages across Australia, with projections that these will become worse in the coming years. These shortages are also present in Central Australia and have a direct impact on the delivery of maintenance services to remote communities. The shortages in Central Australia are exacerbated by the majority of trades workers being based in Alice Springs, which requires long travel distances ranging from 15km to Amoongana to 872km to Lajamanu. This results in productivity losses ranging between 25% and 80% and can increase the cost of service delivery by more than 400%.• The implementation of trade hubs, consisting of at least one electrician, plumber and carpenter in the communities of Yuendumu, Kintore, Lajamanu, Santa Teresa, Hermannsburg, Papunya, Mutitjulu, Kaltukatjara and Ti Tree would result in cost-effective improvements in the delivery of maintenance services to these remote communities and those around them. Using remote trade hubs would result in 100% of direct maintenance costs being funded by remote rental payments. Reducing the total cost of remote maintenance by approximately 7% with a saving of over $900,000 in Central Australia and over $5 million annually if implemented across the NT.• To address the high mobility levels of non-indigenous staff in communities, the development of trade apprenticeships on community for local Indigenous community members would further improve the long term sustainability of trades being based in the community.• Calculations indicate that adequate coverage of trades through community-based hubs could generate an additional 100 jobs, resulting in more cost-effective delivery of services, improved customer service, improved education and employment levels, as well as indirect environmental and socio-economic benefits addressing 10 of the 17 Closing the Gap Targets.

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