Professional Indigenous employment
As a way of increasing professional Indigenous employment at Rio Tinto’s Australian operations, the company sponsors Indigenous students to attend university to undertake their undergraduate degrees under its National Indigenous Cadetship Programme. The cadets are offered vacation employment during their summer breaks which provides them with practical industry experience in their chosen field of study, whilst also having the opportunity to understand the work environment they could potentially be employed in.
The cadets are recruited from a diverse range of disciplines from universities across Australia. These areas include most fields of Engineering (Mechanical, Physics, Chemical, Civil, Surveying and Processing), Economics, Law, Geology, Communications, Human Resources and Information Technology. Candidates can enrol in the programme from their first through to fifth year depending on their course structures.
Since the cadetship programme began in 1999, ten students have graduated from their studies and gained employment with Rio Tinto in their area of study, five of whom have been placed in permanent graduate positions in engineering, underground mining and accounting. Preference is given to cadets who are from local Indigenous communities nearby Rio Tinto operations. The cadetship programme is an integral part of Rio Tinto’s Indigenous Employment and Training Strategy and our commitment to engage with communities.
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