CASA is proud of our talented Indigenous women. Working in both technical aviation roles and non-aviation technical enabling functions, these women provide their individual, unique, cultural perspective to many roles across almost all CASA divisions, branches and locations. We celebrate this cohort and continue to look for ways to promote gender and culture in our attraction, engagement, development and retention strategies.
We recognise that to promote, develop, and retain talented Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, we need to present CASA as a viable and attractive employment opportunity for young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. The APS’s Indigenous Apprenticeship Program (IAP) is an employment pipeline that CASA first engaged with in 2020. This program employs Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples for a 12-month period, while providing workplace mentoring and coaching, and the opportunity to study and achieve certificate or diploma qualifications. At the conclusion of the program, successful participants transition into permanent ongoing roles with our agency.
Andrea Henson
CATSIEN Chair, RWG Member, Team Leader Workforce Planning and Strategy
Andrea is a proud Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander woman and comes from the Yidinji and Yirrganydji, Waiben (Thursday Island) and Badu Island nations. Andrea is the Chairperson of CASA’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Employee Network (CATSIEN) and has over 27 years’ experience in the public sector having worked in Queensland, the Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory (ACT). Prior to joining CASA, Andrea worked closely with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to deliver Indigenous specific employment and education programs and spent many years designing, developing and implementing policies and programs to improve employment and education outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities.
Andrea worked on programs such as the Community Development Employment Program, the Indigenous Youth Employment Centres program, the National Indigenous Cadetship Program, the Structured Training and Employment Program and the IAGDP. As a participant of the IAGDP Andrea relocated from Brisbane to Canberra and spent 15 years working for the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (in its various forms) and it was there that she eventually landed in her field of passion – human resources. Andrea’s many achievements eventually led to her achieving a master’s degree in human resources management.
CASA also provides career planning workshops for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees and their supervisors and managers. These workshops help employees to determine their career goals, development needs, and pathways from their current role to their desired role. These workshops produce a detailed career plan that the staff member discusses during performance conversations with their manager/supervisor. Individual career plans are an essential part of providing certainty and career pathways and retaining Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees.