In a bid to improve job opportunities for people living with disabilities, the government has launched a $2.43 million RecruitAble pilot at Coles head office on Monday.
The pilot is in partnership with Get Skilled Access which was founded by Australian of the Year Dylan Alcott AO, and national recruitment agency Randstad Australia.
“We are partnering with Coles to help their staff become more inclusive and disability confident, making the shopping experience for people with disability more accessible and easier,” said Alcott.
RecruitAble is designed and delivered by people with disability and will work to build their disability confidence, and identify key areas for increasing accessible practices in the hiring process to create more inclusive workplaces.
In its first stage, Coles will dedicate eight new roles in technology within its store support centres to people with disabilities.
Coles group CEO Steven Cain said the pilot is a champion for accessibility and disability inclusion.
“We know that more than 3 per cent of our workforce identify as having a disability and we want to ensure that our management team takes our learnings from this pilot to help our disability hiring acumen across Coles Group more broadly,” he said.
Minister for families and social services Anne Ruston said people with disabilities are hardworking and dedicated employees but too often businesses fail to recognise or even consider their skills and capabilities.
