Toowoomba Region Mayor, Paul Antonio, has showcased local study and training opportunities for indigenous youth at a meeting of the Torres Cape Indigenous Council Alliance in Cairns.
In a whirlwind trip to the far north last week, Mayor Antonio spoke to Mayors and leaders of the Council areas involved in the alliance about options Toowoomba is able to provide for young people.
“Toowoomba being home to eight boarding schools and more than 50 primary and secondary schools in total has a long history of supporting students from Far North Qld/Torres Straight and PNG,” said Mayor Antonio.
“Toowoomba Grammar School and The Glennie School are Yalari Partner Schools. Yalari is a national scholarship program that provides full senior boarding school scholarships for indigenous students from regional, rural and remote locations.
“Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport provides convenient access to fly students in/out directly – there’s currently the exciting Boeing Ghostbat project happening at Wellcamp right now.
“Toowoomba TAFE, a major TAFE campus with many training and study opportunities and UniSQ with its head campus in Toowoomba also has indigenous scholarship program, are further options for young people.
“The idea is that indigenous youth could continue to come to Toowoomba and study or be trained in their chosen field and take that knowledge back to their communities in the future,” he said.
Mayor Antonio said Toowoomba was well placed to support students.
“I truly believe these young people would benefit from Toowoomba’s welcoming community,” he said.Â
The Mayor said the Toowoomba and Surat Basin Enterprise, through its Study Toowoomba arm, would now follow-up with the community leaders to make further arrangements for indigenous youth to come to Toowoomba to train or study in their chosen fields.
