Easter and Anzac Day always make April a special month in the calendar which I hope you all enjoyed and commemorated again this year. The Precruitment team have close ties to our forces.  Colin is a returned Veteran from conflicts in Sarawak, Malaysia and Vietnam and members of our team have had partners serving as do many of our clients and temporary employees.

We attend the dawn service which is always very moving and a sad refection to give thanks to all that have served to protect our nation. Precruitment has supported an initiative to provide training for veterans to assist them improving workforce participation and to overcome the barriers and challenges they face while trying to make the transition from the military to civilian work force. This is especially difficult if the ex-service men or woman are suffering from physical or mental health problems occasioned by their service to our country. Colin is involved in ex-service organisations aimed primarily at assisting veterans from all conflicts.

All Anzac Day services are special, and we have attended them in many locations throughout Australia and have been to Gallipoli, but the one that stands out most to me was held on a lookout between Boulia and Bedourie in far Western Queensland in 2015. It is only a 1500km drive, but Precruitment services these two regional councils, so Colin and I said, “Let’s go”.

The ANZAC service was a joint venture between the two shires of Boulia and Diamantina.  Boulia is 190 km east of the NT border and about 200km north of Birdsville. The shire is 61,093 sq km. The town of Boulia has a population of approximately 230 and the shire total is about 480. This is sheep and cattle country and is famous for the Min Min lights. The Diamantina Shire has a land mass of 94,832 sq km and a population under 300. After three and half solid days driving, we arrived at our destination, the Vaughn Johnson Lookout.  Settled into our camp we had sweeping views of the flat channel country for as far as the eye could see.

For Colin, being a veteran of two conflicts the dawn service was particularly emotional.  It was a very special moment when the riderless horse arrived at the Flag Station.  Given the remoteness of the site there was an impressive crowd of hundreds gathered. It was a great experience to see the 101 horses ride up the 3 km from the valley below and fall in behind the march. The service was led by the Captain and three crewmen from the RAN ship, HMAS Diamantina.   They had made the journey from their ship especially for the occasion. Many of the WW1 light horsemen had come from the Diamantina and Boulia shires.  What a wonderful experience it was to be out in the bush with these resilient proud Australians.

Thank you for your service and we hope that BRS gets a fair trial.

This month we enjoyed helping job seekers through the STEPS pre-employment program. We hosted 8 students in our office for job application and interview training. They were all Cert3 Business students preparing for ‘stepping’ into the work force or into new careers. They were all engaged and enthusiastic to learn job search skills and tips.

We are working with excellent candidates across many skills sets who are currently seeking new opportunities so please do not hesitate to contact our team if we can assist you with a new staff member or a new career opportunity.

We appreciate and thank you for your continued support of Precruitment.