More jobs for multicultural communities

A JOB creation program established between GROW Bendigo, Loddon Campaspe Multicultural Services, and Spotless has helped just under thirty culturally and linguistically diverse people find employment in just over a year.

GROW Bendigo, which stands for Growing Regional Opportunities for Work, is run by Be.Bendigo with funding from the State Government.

Since May last year, it has been holding three-week on-boarding programs for people from Karen and Sudanese backgrounds, which included culturally suitable placement and training.

GROW project manager Petra McLoughlin said the initiative has delivered good results with 27 people finding ongoing employment.

“The LCMS/Spotless partnership is prime example of exactly what GROW Bendigo aims to achieve and it has been thrilling to see how bringing these two organisations together has delivered mutually beneficial results from both a social and business perspective,” she said.

Spotless is described as an “integrated facilities services” company with a focus on cleaning, and work with clients like Bendigo Health, employing more than 500 people in the Greater Bendigo area.

Operations and environmental services manager Ben Dillon said Spotless saw the opportunity to take a fresh approach to creating employment pathways.

“Participating in GROW has been an extraordinary experience for Spotless and it is great to see so many given such a fabulous opportunity,” he said.

“Watching the confidence of all the candidates grow through each stage of the program, and ultimately being able to welcome so many new team members, has been a great.”

LCMS has run four group recruitment sessions since starting the program, and operations manager Deanna Neville said they were “warmly received.”

“There is no doubt that gaining employment with Spotless has helped our communities to establish themselves and their families within Bendigo,” she said.

“LCMS highly values this ongoing partnership, and we hope to the growth of more opportunities to multicultural communities into such sustainable work.”

The success of the program was celebrated at a lunch, jointly catered by Karen Lady Catering and Jas’s Indian Kitchen, last week.