This research has investigated a spectrum of activities undertaken by CDEP organisations in their efforts to provide vocational education and training opportunity. Some CDEPs have developed into quite large and complex organisations. They have embarked upon a range of enterprise activities that provide training and employment opportunities, thereby generating profits to feed back to their overall operations. Other CDEPs have successfully tapped into available opportunities, marketing their own resources to employers and businesses in the local area. Still others view a more self sufficient strategy as the best way to provide available choices by arranging one-off, community identified projects that incorporate training. These generally have not led to employment opportunities outside of the CDEP but have provided community focused outcomes. Finally, there are CDEPs that have been less able to identify opportunities, focusing their activities solely on providing essential services. From these varied approaches and experiences, our research highlights a range of critical issues relevant to the provision of vocational education and training through CDEP programs. These are summarised below.

CDEP participants almost invariably have very low education and skill levels. This has implications for all aspects of the training spectrum, influencing the planning and implementation of training programs, the funding necessary to accomplish the training, and the length of time needed to complete the training. Remedial programs are needed to overcome the current situation. Intervention programs implemented at the school level may also be necessary to encourage students to remain in school and thereby circumvent this continuing problem. Without basic numeracy and English literacy skills, Indigenous Australians have reduced chances of successfully completing any kind of training, be it accredited or non-accredited.

Securing training is complex, expensive and time consuming. In order to develop enterprise and employment opportunities CDEP organisations must have access to secure, recurrent training money. Providing vocational education and training requires dedicated staff whose only responsibility is to identify training needs, locate the funds, and find the appropriate trainers. Some CDEPs side-step the administrative burden of training by brokering external employment opportunities through which CDEP recipients can access accredited training. Still other CDEPs plan to enter into complex arrangements to become RTOs so as to attract funding specifically to provide relevant training. CDEPs which had become registered, however, often found that they received no benefit. As a result they preferred to let their RTO status lapse and to continue their activities in less formal ways. Clearly, whatever strategy is employed, there needs to be explicit, recurrent funded training components in the CDEP scheme. While this money may not originate from the ATSIC budget, it should be channelled through ATSIC in order to simplify, for individual programs, the process of accessing available funding.

CDEP workers, managers and board members tend to have few if any managerial skills and, consequently, training of workers, managers and boards is essential. The kinds of skills brought to the managerial operations of CDEPs have a direct impact upon the ability of organisations to become more than conduits for CDEP wages. The capacities of full-time support staff, the managers and the board to oversee the budgets they receive so as to ensure that the organisations are viable, enduring, and able to nurture opportunity, is dependent upon their access to appropriate training and career development.

Building education and training capacity is essential for the success of CDEP programs. There should be greater latitude allowed to organisations in identifying their own needs and setting goals for vocational education and training outcomes that are realistic within the context of the organisation and the community. In many cases CDEPs may need some funding assistance to secure the advice and expertise of relevant consultants in order to identify these needs and set goals. In addition, CDEP programs should be allowed to invest in their own ability to provide training or purchase training from other providers; where profits have been generated by individual programs, they should be available for reinvestment in the program and must not, as happens now, result in what is effectively a financial penalty when an equivalent amount is sliced from the CDEP funding allocation for the following year. This practice can too easily result in the eventual strangulation of the very enterprises that achieved the profit.

Enterprise development should be promoted as one of the most effective means of providing relevant training-by-doing for CDEP participants. Small businesses developed by CDEPs are a significant avenue for the provision of training and employment opportunities, and some CDEPs have found that enterprises contribute to keeping children in school, providing them with work experience and meaningful education. In the face of persistent low levels of school retention among Indigenous youth and their consequent poor employment prospects, this represents a significant community benefit.

Finally, our research revealed a wealth of experience and knowledge among CDEP programs spread across the country. Directly sharing that knowledge between programs has until now been virtually impossible. There would be enormous benefit in establishing some form of national association of CDEP schemes in order to facilitate the exchange of information among members about funding options and opportunities, training approaches, strategic development and so on. This could be facilitated on-line, as well as through the various other channels. In addition, our research suggests the need for some type of 'one-stop shop' for information on vocational education and training. This would greatly improve the ability of CDEPs to access and make use of all government and non-government programs available to them. We suggest that relevant agencies investigate a means of facilitating a model for disseminating this information.