Prime Ministers Work for the Dole Achievement Awards 2002 - Caring for our Heritage
Award: Winner Caring for our Heritage
Name: Construction of Bleriot XI Historic Aircraft, Burnie TAS
From left to right: Winner Caring for our Heritage category, Work for the Dole Achievement Awards 2002, The Hon Tony Abbott MP, Minister For Employment and Workplace Relations, Senator Richard Colbeck, Senator for Tasmania, Mr Danny Keep, Tasmanian Business and Employment; Mr Ron Sushames, TAFE Tasmania, Burnie Campus; Mr Christopher Ellis, WFD participant, The Hon Mal Brough MP, Minister for Employment Services
Description
Tasmanian Business and Employment and the Burnie Campus of TAFE Tasmania have won the Best Activity award in the Caring for our Heritage category at the Prime Minister’s Work for the Dole Achievement Awards 2002. The award recognises the contribution that these organisations make to unemployed people as well as their achievements in helping to provide quality services and facilities to their local communities.
Work for the Dole participants worked with students from Burnie TAFE to reconstruct a replica of the Bleriot XI aeroplane which conducted the first mail run between Sydney and Melbourne early last century. After featuring in a number of airshows around Australia and New Zealand from February 2003, the plane will be donated to the Queen Victoria Museum in Launceston, Tasmania.
Participants gained a variety of skills that can be used in future employment opportunities such as engineer drawing appreciation, metal fabrication, timber crafting, fabric upholstery, mechanical analysis and aviation design. All parts of the plane were made by hand.
Participants acquired a variety of work skills and gained experience in working as part of a team as well as independently. They also gained satisfaction from knowing that they are helping to make a part of Australia’s history available both to national and international communities. At the completion of their placement, participants receive a Training Credit up to the value of $800 to pursue further training and a Passport to Employment to help them gain paid employment.