On Friday 4 November, Ashburton Aboriginal Corporation was presented with another award:
Small Refund Point Operator of the Year sponsored by CES (Container Exchange Services)
This would not be possible without the support of our local community, local businesses and of course our amazing team. This award is for each and every one of you who make the effort to recycle your drink containers through Containers for Change.
Some of the main reasons that we believe attributed to this win over refund points in WA, include our commitment to safety and our Jobseeker Pathway Program.
In a recent safety audit, we received an astounding score of 81% which places us in the top 10% of Refund Point Operators throughout Western Australia. This result is a testament to each staff member being heavily focused on safety at CFC. We believe that this grounding will give candidates an advantage over others in their job applications.
C4C focuses on attracting unemployed residential candidates in order to upskill them to be able to meet the demands of the workforce. Attracting candidates already living in the area, means that the volatility of the housing market will no longer be a major barrier for staff to be further employed by local businesses when they are skilled and work-ready.
Skills shortages are a major impediment to the viability of small-medium enterprises in the region. The Pilbara Region also struggles with access to further education and skills training. Having a larger workforce at Containers for Change means that we are able to attract training organizations to the Tom Price area and guarantee minimum course attendees to make the exercise economically viable. This creates training opportunities that individuals would not otherwise have access to.
Containers for Change is a paid work-like program where participants build skills to be work-ready. We work with candidates to build skills like working with people from diverse backgrounds, customer service, reliability, adhering to safety procedures and accredited training like Forklift training, 4WD training, Working at Heights, Load Restraint etc.
Jobseekers can also get a reference to put on their resumes while we assist them to find full-time and long-term employment.
Since we have been running the CFC refund point, we have removed over 4 million containers that would otherwise have been littered or landfill.
In most of the towns we operate, Containers for Change is the only recycling project in town and the Pilbara needs more recycling programs like this so we can expand. We are therefore providing quality recycling services to the surrounding communities.
We also work with many of the surrounding mine and commercial sites to collect eligible containers from them in our newly acquired truck. From time to time our Jobseekers will accompany the truck driver to gain exposure to these sites and familiarize themselves with mine site entry requirements, especially if this is their chosen field of employment, before returning containers to the refund point to count and sort.
Congratulations to all of the category finalists and winners. You are all incredible and the work you have done through Containers for Change is inspiring. You should all be so proud of what you have achieved.