Perpetual, a trustee for the Fred P Archer Charitable Trust, has opened 17 scholarships to help Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander business leaders enhance their governance expertise. The scholarships will be administered by the Australian Scholarships Foundation (ASF). 

Applications are now open to directors, public officials, and senior executives reporting to a board until Wednesday, 3 February 2021. Applicants need to identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. The 17 scholarships include four full and 13 part scholarships. The course will be held in June 2021 in Perth, pending COVID-19 official guidelines.  

It is the second time the scholarships will be focused exclusively on supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander business leaders and will be open to new or existing directors, public officials or senior executives reporting to a board. Recipients will be offered a place at a five-day Company Directors Course for Indigenous Business Leaders led by the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD). 

Perpetual’s Managing Partner for Community and Social Investment, Caitriona Fay, said the programme is aimed at Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders in the business, community and government sectors. It also comes with the ambition to provide further support in governance capability and a network of diverse individuals looking to affect positive and long-lasting impact for their organisations. 

“We recognise access to education, training and development can be challenging, especially for these businesses and their leaders, and even more so as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact Australia. This is an area of focus for Perpetual and these opportunities are just one of the initiatives we’re undertaking to help Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders enhance their governance expertise and apply it to their missions,” Fay said. 

“We’ve already seen the impact that these scholarships have had from the first round of scholarships undertaken, so we’re pleased to be offering them again specifically to this community,” she said. 

AICD’s Managing Director and CEO Angus Armour affirmed their commitment to improving access to governance education for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.  

“We are proud to partner with Perpetual and the Australian Scholarships Foundation to provide these scholarships to Indigenous business leaders. We have adapted our flagship education program to target the needs of Indigenous communities and look forward to helping develop the governance capability of the scholarship recipients,” Armour said.  

Since 2011, Perpetual has funded more than 1,700 scholarships to empower and enhance skills among not-for-profit directors and chairs across Australia, in partnership with ASF and the AICD.