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Katie Woolf spoke with CDU VET Team Leader Tourism Tim Francis · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Three sixty with Katie Wolf thanks to Joyce Main, Darwin
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: hans On and Stuart Highway Burro mat joining us on
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: the line right now to tell us a little bit
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: more about a new course which is set to get
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: underway and aimed at attracting and retaining tour guides in
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: the Northern Territory. On the line is the cdu VET
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: team leader for Tourism, Tim Francis. Good morning to you.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Tim, Katie, how are you?
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah? Really well, great to have you on the show
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: and really pleasing to hear. I think that they're real.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: There seems to be a real push from Charles Darwin
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  Speaker 1: University at the moment to sort of grow our own
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: and retain territorians in the territory. And and that's what
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: this new tour Guide Ready course is all about, really,
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  Speaker 1: isn't it.
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  Speaker 2: It is we am VET VET training in particular, and
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  Speaker 2: we've seen you which I be very reactive and work
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  Speaker 2: their their industry and identify areas and things and needs
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: they have. And we met with the Tourism Central Australia
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  Speaker 2: group a whole range of other tools guided in our
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: springs and asked them what they would want in a
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  Speaker 2: tool guide and were designed a bespoke course around that
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  Speaker 2: to basically try to fill that gap and so.
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  Speaker 1: Tell us a bit more about this course and who
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: is maybe able to do it.
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  Speaker 2: So it's really open to anyone. There are some underlying
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: conditions you have for meat which are mostly around the licensing.
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  Speaker 2: But if you are physically fit, you love the outdoors,
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  Speaker 2: you've got a bit of a bit of verb in
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  Speaker 2: your personality and you love talking about the outdoors and
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  Speaker 2: sharing sharing knowledge, then we would love to have anyone
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  Speaker 2: come down to our springs and join the course. For
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  Speaker 2: the five weeks we had we have been very lucky
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  Speaker 2: to secure a large endorsement from Tourism and Tee especially
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  Speaker 2: shout out to John d Maria and Nick Roe who
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  Speaker 2: have basically made this course which will probably cost you
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  Speaker 2: about seven thousand dollars if you walked off the street
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  Speaker 2: to do it, and we're able to provide it free
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  Speaker 2: to the applicantntil we get the limited number. We've got
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  Speaker 2: about twelve spaces, so hopefully we can fill those seats.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: And tell us I mean we've spoken to Tourism Central
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  Speaker 1: Australia at different times. We know that this issue with
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: the worker shortage is acute. How are things going in
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  Speaker 1: Central Australia right now though, when you talk about the
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: tourism sector and the shortage of workers.
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  Speaker 2: So what we're really finding is that when the international
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  Speaker 2: tourism sort of dropped off last year and between that
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: and the domestic market sort of firing up again, a
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  Speaker 2: lot of their tool guides left the industry and we've
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: got other jobs and now there's really a very very
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  Speaker 2: small pool for people to sort of come back and
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  Speaker 2: refill those jobs. And the idea at the moment is
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  Speaker 2: that by tracking people into to old Springs, if we
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: can do this and give them some training and give
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  Speaker 2: them the skills and the licens thing and all the
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  Speaker 2: things they need, they'll be read basically the end of
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: the call us to walk straight into jobs.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: And tim How important is it really that you know
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  Speaker 1: that you do have have like have people do this
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  Speaker 1: course and actually get in there and fill those jobs.
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  Speaker 2: Look, it's really important. Businesses are struggling to find find guides.
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  Speaker 2: There are tool companies who are sharing tour guides because
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  Speaker 2: there are just none on the ground. And we often
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  Speaker 2: when before we had this course, a lot of the
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  Speaker 2: companies had to hire people with no experience and then
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  Speaker 2: to go through all the training themselves. And so this
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  Speaker 2: is a way of us being able to sort of
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  Speaker 2: get ahead of the curve. And we work very closely
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  Speaker 2: with the tour operators. We're using their their itineries that
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: they we use, and we're putting it into the course itself.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: They have come aboard and give it us sites stay
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  Speaker 2: at and we will be doing tour tours through their
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: workshops and they'll get to almost have an interview prior
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  Speaker 2: to the end of the course. That's how closely we're
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  Speaker 2: sort of linking this in with the local industry.
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  Speaker 1: It sounds like a really good thing to do and hopefully,
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  Speaker 1: you know, really helps to fill that gap and that
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  Speaker 1: shortage that we've got at the moment. How many people
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  Speaker 1: can actually take part, Like what's the you know, what's
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  Speaker 1: the size of the intake.
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  Speaker 2: So we've got twelve spots to this next course, which
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: starts in the ninth of August, runs through to the
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  Speaker 2: tenth of September, and we will be taking them for
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  Speaker 2: a couple of weeks out into Ularu Parta Judah and
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  Speaker 2: we do a couple of weeks of classroom stuff. We
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  Speaker 2: do a lot of tools around the greater Our Springs
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  Speaker 2: region looking at all the other types of tour attractions
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  Speaker 2: as well, because these guys almost become little embassadors on
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  Speaker 2: these tours and they need to be able to sort
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  Speaker 2: of value add, you know, to the broader tourism economy
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  Speaker 2: when they're on these tours and explain how they can
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  Speaker 2: do other things post the tour. So there's twelve people
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  Speaker 2: and we we've got a few people already in the course,
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  Speaker 2: so they still bring for some more people. There's a
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  Speaker 2: combination available in our Springs for the duration of the
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  Speaker 2: course as well. So people are in DA one, we're
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: thinking they'd love to make a change and head down
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  Speaker 2: to Our Springs become a tool guide down there. We
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  Speaker 2: can actually house them throughout the at no cost throughout
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  Speaker 2: the whole course as well. And as I said, you know,
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  Speaker 2: thanks to tourism in Tea, they've really come to the
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  Speaker 2: pay here and making this course an amazing opportunity for
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  Speaker 2: people to change, change the life. So I'll get out
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  Speaker 2: of boring one to five job and getting it get
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  Speaker 2: in out doors.
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  Speaker 1: Tim, do you reckon it's going to go far enough?
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  Speaker 1: I mean, twelve doesn't sound like a huge number. I
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  Speaker 1: know it's a start, but it doesn't sound like a
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  Speaker 1: huge number, you know, is it going to go far enough?
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  Speaker 2: Look at what we've been doing is we're running a
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  Speaker 2: number of these courses, so we're trying to keep the
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  Speaker 2: numbers low because we want to make these are intensive
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  Speaker 2: courses five weeks and if we blow those numbers out
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  Speaker 2: too big and you don't get the the you know,
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  Speaker 2: the one on one train, which we really need to
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  Speaker 2: make sure that this intensive courses is designed to sort
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  Speaker 2: of provide with another one the other courses and will
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  Speaker 2: be rolled out in Darwin hopefully if this is successful
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: in the in the s in Central Australia, and then
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  Speaker 2: we'll be doing them repeating him again early next year.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: Well, we know that, as I said, we've heard on
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  Speaker 1: so many occasions from the tourism sector that that workforce
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: shortage is a real issue at the moment. And I
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: reckon if we're able to grow our own here in
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  Speaker 1: the territory, we're able to develop territorians to get into
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  Speaker 1: those jobs, hopefully, you know, hopefully it means that we're
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  Speaker 1: not in this situation.
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  Speaker 2: Again, that's right, And you know, if we can start
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: a program where we're constantly sort of feeding these new guys,
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  Speaker 2: fully accredited, ready to rock and roll into these in
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  Speaker 2: these businesses, it should hopefully really make it have a
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  Speaker 2: big impact.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Tim Francis, the cdu Vet team leader for tourism,
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  Speaker 1: I appreciate you having a chat with us this morning. Mate.
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  Speaker 1: Just very quickly though, if there is anyone out there
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  Speaker 1: listening who's maybe keen to find out more, where should
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  Speaker 1: they go to look?
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: And Martin Bowl my coordinator in our springs and his
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  Speaker 2: mobile number is here for we.
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  Speaker 1: Can either well we might even grab it from you
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  Speaker 1: offare and if anybody calls through we can pass it.
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  Speaker 2: On fantastic here, that'd be great.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: Thank good on you, Tim, thanks mate of your time,
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  Speaker 1: no worries, thank you. And that was cdu Vet team
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  Speaker 1: leader there for tourism, Tim Francis, And yeah, I reckon
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  Speaker 1: it's a really good idea if we can grow our
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  Speaker 1: own here in the territory. We know that we've seen
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  Speaker 1: a real issue over the last few months or over
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  Speaker 1: the last eighteen months, no, not that far back, maybe
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  Speaker 1: the last twelve months since COVID initially struck, and then
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: when things sort of got restarted and we saw that
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  Speaker 1: we had tourists still here in the territory or coming
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: to the territory from interstate, but we really haven't had
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: the workforce in the tourism industry. So hopefully this can
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  Speaker 1: go part of the way in terms of making sure
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  Speaker 1: that we can grow our own ensuring that we do
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  Speaker 1: have tour operators and guides and people in that sector
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  Speaker 1: to be able to keep it moving, because as I said,
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  Speaker 1: it's been something that has been raised with us with
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: both Tourism Top End also Tourism Central Australia. Daniel Rochford
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  Speaker 1: has told us quite some time back about the acute
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: issue it was and said that you know, they were
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: having a real problem in terms of filling some of
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: those jobs. So with these tour guides, let's hope that
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: it makes a difference