Homegrown trainee Darrenia Carr helps fill recruitment gap in Tennant Creek art centre

An apprenticeship program in a remote Northern Territory town is helping businesses find skilled workers by connecting homegrown teens to local employment.

Darrenia "Nia" Carr is one of 10 Tenant Creek High School students completing a school-based apprenticeship or traineeship with a local business.

As part of her traineeship with Barkly Regional Arts, the 18-year-old year 12 student is studying a Certificate II in Creative Industries.

"It would be awesome if I kept working here after school," Ms Carr said.

"It's good because I get to sit down and talk with the old ladies and work with the staff and everyone's just cool."

Barkly Regional Arts projects officer Sarvika Mishra said the not-for-profit arts group found it difficult to recruit and retain skilled workers, as was the case in many Northern Territory workplaces.

She said lack of affordable housing, the high costs of remote living, media reports of crime and the oppressive heat made it "hard to convince outsiders" to accept work opportunities and stay in their roles in the outback town.

"Recruitment is an organisation-wide problem over here, let alone getting local young people that are interested, especially local young women … so to see someone like Nia in that role is so good," Ms Mishra said.

"Nia is an amazing person with a really good work ethic and [she] is a gun."

Local knowledge, extra value

Ms Mishra said employees such as Ms Carr were better connected to the community, which often proved advantageous in the workplace.

"They bring in the knowledge of being a local and they bring in that familiarity," she said.

"The people that are working with [Ms Carr] are familiar with her and it breaks down that heterarchical barrier that you have with an outsider.

"Because of the turnover that is in the NT, you have outsiders coming in and going, so by the time the barriers are broken down, that person's left."

Inspiration for community

Ms Carr's grandmother, artist Lucy Tanami, said she was "happy" seeing her granddaughter at work.

"I'm probably the proudest grandmother," she said.

Ms Tanami said many young people in the outback town were getting into trouble, but the apprenticeship program offered students who were disengaged from school different pathways into work.

"It's a good idea to keep them motivated, doing something … they learn and the more they enjoy their jobs," she said.

Ms Mishra said Ms Carr was in a position to inspire others in her community.

"She definitely has the potential and the capacity to be a very positive role model in this town, which is very needed at the moment," she said.

Ms Carr said her work at the art centre was an important stepping stone to developing workplace skills for wherever her career took her.

"It means a lot to me," she said.

"It's just getting out of my shy zone."