A growing economy means a growing need for director skills, says Deborah Fracaro, chair of the AICD NT Committee
The past year has seen a large number of new members join the NT ranks of the AICD. The division has prospered with a growth of 23 percent the highest growth of any division in Australia. Due to increased demand for the Company Directors Course we ran two programs in Darwin, the usual tutorial program and a one-week intensive program, both fully booked. We have certainly come a long way from the early 1990s, which saw some courses with less than 10 participants. We venture into the Red Centre this year and will be running our first Intensive Company Directors Course in Alice Springs in early November. Supported by the Department of Business, Industries and Resource Development we also introduced a wider range of education programs, including The Role of the Chairman with Henry Bosch and The Skills Update Program with Richard Thomas, both well supported. We have also seen more in-house tailored workshops. In particular, successful one-day programs for indigenous boards mainly focussing on governance and finance.
The annual dinner in Darwin was a great success with nearly 200 guests in attendance. Chief Minister Clare Martin addressed members on her new Government's vision for business. Martin was also on hand to award recent Company Director Course graduates. The dinner saw AICD CEO John Hall visit the Top End and take the opportunity to meet local members and speak with the new Government in regards to director issues. We recently jointly hosted a luncheon with Horwaths and CSM for the Australian Indigenous Leadership Program. The program, the first of its kind in Australia, is training 125 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders at either diploma or certificate level between 2001 and 2003. The program is being conducted by the Australian Indigenous Leadership Centre (AILC), Canberra, a non-profit organisation which encourages and supports Indigenous leaders at all levels to develop the knowledge, skills, confidence and shared vision needed to lead communities, organisations and the nation in the 21st century.
The program is funded through an innovative $1 million partnership between the AILC, the Citigroup Foundation and Citigroup Australia. The initiative is corporate Australia's largest single contribution to indigenous leadership training and was brought together by Corporate Good Works which assists community and corporate organisations to form truly equal and sustainable partnerships. The background to the program is a 1998 report by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Canberra, into the growing pressures faced by indigenous leaders over recent decades. The report found there were too few indigenous leaders at community, state and national levels — and identified a "critical need to provide support for indigenous leaders at all levels to develop their knowledge, skills and networks".
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