Business leader gets personal on skills, jobs for people with a disability
23 November 2004
An award-winning South Australian business and education leader will draw on personal experience in a new national role pursuing better training and job outcomes for Australians with a disability.
Clothing industry leader and Flinders University Council member Leonie Clyne is the new co-chair of the Australian Disability Training Advisory Council (ADTAC), the nation’s peak policy advisor on training issues and people with a disability. She also chairs Flinders Consulting, a commercial arm of Flinders University.
After time as a child in a wheelchair and a successful business career, Leonie Clyne has personal experience of both perspectives.
“Just because you have a disability, doesn’t mean you can’t be a productive, reliable worker,” she says.
“More than 1.5 million working age Australians with a disability can work, but less than half of them have jobs.
“Statistics show that people with a disability regularly demonstrate lower levels of absenteeism, lower recruitment costs, greater loyalty and comparable productivity.
“With increasing skill shortages, and an ageing population, employers should be considering the business benefits in employing skilled people with a disability.”
Ms Clyne is managing director of the award-winning Angus Clyne Australia - a corporate clothing manufacturer, wholesaler and retailer. The company was ranked in the annual BRW List of Top 100 Fastest Growing Private Australian Companies three years’ running. And in 1999 was named 1999 Prime Minister''''s Small Business of the Year at the Australian Training Awards.
Since 2001, she has been a member of the Board of the Australian National Training Authority (ANTA), established in 1992 to provide a national focus for vocational education and training (VET).
The ANTA Board appointed her as ADTAC co-chair, joining her fellow co-chair Mark Bagshaw, manager of IBM Australia/NZ''''s Accessibility Centre.
ADTAC was created in October 2000 as an advisory committee to the ANTA Board. ADTAC members include representatives from the disability sector, industry, training providers, and Australian, state and territory governments. ADTAC''''s mission is to create a shared commitment to improve training and employment opportunities for people with a disability through vocational education and training (VET).
More information
Media contact: Jennifer Reis, Jacoby Reis Public Relations
T: 07 3315 6655