Without Ventia, Civik wouldn’t exist.
It all began with a conversation in late 2022 between White Box Enterprises’ Chief Entrepreneur at the time, Alex McDonald, and Samuel Evans, Ventia Senior Project Director, NBN N2P.
Since 2020, Ventia, one of Australia and New Zealand's largest essential infrastructure services providers, has collaborated with White Box Enterprises. Their initial partnership with Australian Spatial Analytics (ASA), a data services social enterprise that trains and employs young neurodivergent adults, paved the way for further collaborations.
Samuel recalls: “We were using ASA quite extensively, and I had a good conversation with Alex to say, ‘this is great’. We need to engage more Indigenous people and people with barriers to entry and so we came up with the idea to start a social enterprise in Cairns that employed people to do basic civil work on the nbn® network.”
Civik General Manager Dominiqe Bird has led the project for White Box from the outset and saw the partnership as a great opportunity.
“It addressed two problems at once. We can find people in local communities who want that opportunity to be upskilled, and help Ventia deliver this nationwide project,” he said.
The pilot launched in May 2023 in Cairns with two First Nations supervisors and five former refugees from Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Myanmar and Kenya. A month later, the crew began their first day of work on the nbn® fibre upgrade project.
Civik’s mission
Civik trains and employs young people facing barriers to employment in regional Australia, with a particular focus on underserved groups such as First Nations people and former refugees. The goal is to equip individuals with skills and confidence for careers in construction, engineering, and telecommunications.
But Civik’s impact extends beyond job creation.
Addressing industry challenges
In today’s business landscape, partnerships with social enterprises are not just a CSR checkbox, they are strategic, impactful, and mutually beneficial business endeavours.
In 2023, unfilled vacancies in Australia's civil construction sector were estimated at approximately 100,000. National infrastructure projects present recruitment challenges, even for industry giants like Ventia.
Civik is helping to address labour shortages by activating an untapped pool of talented, motivated workers in regional areas who simply require a chance to establish a career.
Civik uses a strengths-based recruitment approach, focusing on the talents of motivated individuals. Their specialised training program equips team members to work in the telecommunications industry, specifically on the nbn® fibre upgrade program.
Evans said they could really see the benefits of working with Civik.
“We struggle to find local workers in regional areas, so we end up mobilising resources,” Samuel said.
“Civik helps solve this by training local people, reducing our mobilisation costs and diversifying our workforce.
“By working with Civik, we achieve a similar productivity outcome to normal contractors but also engage clients and the industry more.”
Engaging community
By building localised workforces, Civik can also have a positive impact on the local community.
“A long-term goal is to make sure when we have work in really remote areas, we can take the model into those areas and train local people to do that work for the long-term sustainable community support,” Samuel said.
“I think it is important we keep that in mind as we expand. Corporate has a real responsibility to be impacting the communities they’re working in. I’m super excited about what we’ve got here.”
Dominiqe Bird, Jennifer Port, Aaron Reid and Samuel Evans.
Jennifer Port, Ventia’s National Resource Manager, NBN N2P, sees partnerships like Civik’s as crucial for community engagement.
“Rolling out the nbn® network is a nation-building exercise. It just seems like the right thing to do to involve as many different communities as possible in the process,” Jennifer said.
“The smartest way we can do that is through social enterprises. They know their own communities, they can employ their own people, and then we can employ them. That way everyone gets to share in the nation building exercise.”
More than ticking boxes
Aaron Reid, General Manager for Social Sustainability at Ventia, said social sustainability is now integral to business.
"Our commitment to social sustainability is how we win work. It’s how we attract and retain talent. It’s how we engage and maintain a supply chain. It’s how we do business,” he said.
What sets Ventia apart is its ability to go beyond and think outside the box.
“What is amazing about Ventia is that where those organisations don’t exist, we’ve shown we’ve got the appetite and the courage to partner with organisations like White Box, to help create social enterprises like Civik and ASA, to address a need that we have. We can do that in a way that creates more social value,” Aaron said.
“Ultimately with Civik, we see them as part of us—not just a supplier, or partner, but family.”
A model for the future
Ventia's collaboration with Civik demonstrates how corporate partnerships with social enterprises can create significant social impact while meeting business needs. Civik’s model can be replicated across industries, contributing to a more inclusive and sustainable economy.
Since launching in 2023, Civik has become an award-winning program achieving terrific success in creating job outcomes, rotating and helping the initial pilot crew transition to other employment opportunities within the state.
Dominiqe said it had been incredible to see the growth in the team.
“Their confidence and skills have improved significantly. It shows in how they carry themselves and in their whole attitude towards work,” he said.
“As a company, we’ve grown rapidly, taking on more complex jobs and expanding to new regions like Townsville.”
As Civik expands, the goal is to become a nationwide contractor delivering major infrastructure projects while creating social impact.
“The dream is for companies like Ventia to know they can rely on Civik to deliver projects and also create social impact at the same time,” Dominiqe said.