Coinciding with NAIDOC Week in a move to close the gap and provide employment opportunities for First Nations Australians, Dreampath launched its new Hunter Valley branch near Muswellbrook on Tuesday, July 4.
The open day invited mining guests and local community members to experience a brand new state-of-the-art mining simulator funded by the NSW Government, which is a highly realistic replica of the Caterpillar 793.
Dreampath and Protech Group NSW business development manager, and ex NRL player Kurt Gidley hoped the simulator and new facility would upskill candidates and provide job opportunities for both indigenous and non-indigenous people.
"Dreampath is a majority indigenous owned company based in Hunter Valley and this is our first official branch, it's a huge achievement and a real milestone," he said.
"We've got a real passion and real goal to be able to provide career opportunities to local indigenous men and women throughout the Hunter Valley."
The CAT 793 simulator was delivered from South Africa and contains a fully immersive screen, taking candidates through real-life situations.
"We have a trainer and assessor employed to put our candidates through various courses and challenges like emergency response procedures, to asses how they react to things, how they operate the truck, obviously all in preparation to arriving on site," Mr Gidley said.
He said Dreampath and Protech were on a mission to offer a high quality training facility to people wanting to enter the mining sector.
"People who have never worked in mining before and want to pursue a new career in the mining industry - we'll train them up and give them some confidence," he said.
Applications for the New to Industry Haul Truck Simulator Program are open now and can be found at www.dreampath.com.au.
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