Are you interested in a career in meat processing work?
Rural & Remote Area Work Scheme (RAWS)
Boys from the Bush (BFTB)Projects - Rural and Remote Area Work Scheme (RAWS) provides a unique opportunity for young people living in rural and remote communities wanting a career in meat processing work.
BFTB Projects' primary target group is disadvantaged youths living in rural and remote communities aged between 15 and 24 years old. To join this scheme they must agree to stay for at least one year. For this reason they must receive the permission and full support from their families.
BFTB Projects travels out to rural and remote communities, with a fully equipped recruitment van, to meet with young people and their families and talk to them about the importance of work, their difficulty in finding work, and how this scheme can help them.
We talk to the young people about the problem of having no jobs in remote communities, other than CDEP (another name for welfare). We talk to the young people and their parents about having to leave home to find a job in some other part of the country. This, however, is easier said than done for disadvantaged young people with little education and limited life experience outside their family and community.
BFTB Projects chose to focus on meat processing work because this type of work has proved to be the employment of choice for many youths living in rural and remote communities. There are a number of reasons for this.
Firstly, most young males from remote communities are accustomed to the processing of wild animals for food, along with the accompanying sensations (texture, sights, sounds and odours) involved in this sort of work. You can see this taking place in the following picture taken in the Torres Strait.
Firstly, most young males from remote communities are accustomed to the processing of wild animals for food, along with the accompanying sensations (texture, sights, sounds and odours) involved in this sort of work. You can see this taking place in the following picture taken in the Torres Strait.
A second reason this type of work is the employment of choice for many young people is due to the families historical connection to the pastoral (cattle) industry. This type of work is part-and-parcel of what their grandfathers and great-grandfathers were doing over the past 125 years before the time of welfare and CDEP. Pictured below is a typical bush stock camp 1950's.
It’s a return to the ‘golden age’ when their families were the mainstay of the northern cattle industry. It’s this historical connection that gives context and relatedness.
Another reason this type of work is enjoyed by our young people is because these days abattoirs pay good weekly wages.
Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) has identified the greatest threat to the sustainability, or indeed the continued growth of the Australian red meat industry, is its inability to attract and retain an effective, stable and skilled workforce. The MLA says that the industry requires an estimated 5,000 additional meat process workers - skilled and unskilled at a ratio of 1:3. Positions include labourers, knife hands, slicers, boners and slaughterman. To become a skilled slicer, boner or slaughterman will take between 1 and 2 years of solid training.
BFTB Projects arranges for the immediate, unsubsidised employment of our target group as a group placement, where they compete on an equal footing with their fellow employees - see pictures below.
Our new industry partner is JBS Swift - Riverina Meat Processing Plant (formally Rockdale Beef), situated in southern New South Wales. Riverina Beef will provide you with immediate fulltime employment with on-the-job training for a Certificate II in Meat Processing (Abattoirs).
BFTB Projects arranges for the immediate, unsubsidised employment of our target group as a group placement, where they compete on an equal footing with their fellow employees - see pictures below.
Our new industry partner is JBS Swift - Riverina Meat Processing Plant (formally Rockdale Beef), situated in southern New South Wales. Riverina Beef will provide you with immediate fulltime employment with on-the-job training for a Certificate II in Meat Processing (Abattoirs).
BFTB Projects also provide the essential after work support and supervision to maximise work attendance and work performance.
We provide:
* rental accommodation in our family group home;
* transport to and from home and work at cost;
* home cooked nutritional meals at cost;
* life skills training for independent living within 6 to 12 months;
* financial management support;
* prohibition on drugs and alcohol; and
* engagement in constructive after work recreation, social and cultural activities.
We provide:
* rental accommodation in our family group home;
* transport to and from home and work at cost;
* home cooked nutritional meals at cost;
* life skills training for independent living within 6 to 12 months;
* financial management support;
* prohibition on drugs and alcohol; and
* engagement in constructive after work recreation, social and cultural activities.
This last point indicates that the RAWS experience is not all work and no play. After work and on weekends there is plenty of good things to do.
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