Our Commitment
We want to place the right people in the right roles. It’s as simple as that. We will work not just for you, but with you.
We will provide you with a customised solution that suits your needs. We will ask you what matters to you and your organisation. We will confirm skills and qualifications with our candidates and we will ask them what matters to them and where they want to go with their individual career goals.
As a not-for-profit organisation, profits from The BUSY Group’s services directly support community initiatives.
These initiatives comprise of various special projects which aim to support socially disadvantaged individuals overcome barriers in engaging with the community, gaining training opportunities and eventually taking the step to gaining employment.
Our History
The BUSY Group was first established in 1977 with the simple aim to deliver training and employment programs to homeless youth on the Gold Coast.
BUSY is actually an acronym that stands for Backing Unemployed Southport Youth. It was founded by our Chair Martin Punch who set out to deliver this aim by obtaining funding from the Australian Government to run a community youth support program.
Over the five decades following its founding, The BUSY Group expanded its service offer of apprenticeship support services, employment services, vocational skills, education and wellbeing, as well as our geographic reach.
We measure our impact via evidence base, always driven by demonstrated need in the communities we serve, aligning with our vision, mission and values.
Key Milestones
In 1998, BUSY successfully tendered for the Australian Government’s Apprenticeships Support Services and from then on became known as BUSY At Work. BUSY At Work has remained a not-for-profit association with the same values that have guided our decisions and our behaviour for nearly 50 years. Over this time, we have have expanded our delivery of Australian Apprenticeship Support Services in five states including Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia.
In 2017, BUSY At Work merged with ON-Q Disability Services (now known as BUSY Ability). BUSY Ability have been supporting people with a disability for over 30 years and are a registered NDIS provider. The experience and knowledge within the disability employment sector is an invaluable asset for The BUSY Group, supporting us to empower and place more people into jobs across a larger footprint, across Northern NSW and Queensland.
In 2019, Skill360 became a part of The BUSY Group. Skill360 is based in Cairns and Brisbane and offers apprenticeship management services through their Group Training Organisation, vocational training through their Registered Training Organisation, and a range of recruitment and employment programs connecting jobseekers and businesses in Queensland.
Also in 2019, The BUSY Group opened our first BUSY School campus in Cairns, to support senior high school students to reengage and complete their education, and find a career pathway. Since then we have opened a further 9 campuses in Queensland, an online school offering, and our first international campuses in Auckland New Zealand and Calgary, Canada. The BUSY School offers an alternative for senior high school students who may be struggling with traditional education and we’ve already supported thousands of students to reengage with their education, go onto further study or find a career path upon graduation.
In 2021, BUSY Health became an additional service offering for our valued clients. BUSY Health provides psychological and counselling support services for individuals, community organisations, schools and workplaces, with the aim of ensuring individuals are empowered for work or study, and teams experience wellbeing in their workplace or school.
From 2022, The BUSY Group partnered with, Registered Training Organisations including One Stop Training and Smart Apprenticeships Solutions, now formed under Squad Training, offering accredited vocational training to support apprentices and trainees for a range of industries.
In 2025, The BUSY Group expanded our services internationally, offering employment and wellbeing programs in the United Kingdom, and our successful alternative education offering, The BUSY School, in New Zealand.
In 2026 The BUSY School will offer its alternative education model in Calgary, Canada.
We’re Continually Growing
The BUSY Group is a growing organisation that employs over 1000 people and we’re consistently looking at ways to reinvest in initiatives to support communities with skills training and employment opportunities, both in Australia and internationally.
ISO Accreditation
ISO (International Organisation for Standardization) is the world’s largest developer and publisher of International Standards.
The BUSY Group is is accredited with ISO 9001 (Quality Management Systems) and ISO27001 (Information Security).