Practical training, built on Thursday Island for the people who keep the north running.
One-day programs in AI and digital skills, leadership, youth, tourism and field skills. Face to face, in your community or workplace, with examples from places your people already know.
Northern Academy started with AI. It now covers the skills people across the north keep asking us for, all taught face to face with local examples.
Using AI safely on everyday work, from emails and reports to funding applications.
AI FoundationsThe Isolated LeaderAI Advanced coming soon
Building resilience and confidence to lead when backup is a flight away, including guiding your team's use of AI.
Programs for Years 7 to 12 that build confidence, judgement and real skills.
Strait MindsYouth Leadership coming soon
Deciding what tourism your community wants, what to charge and how to run it well.
Flying safely and legally, with consent, wildlife and Country in mind.
Preparing people and teams before their first trip to a remote community.
More programs are in development. Tell us what your team needs.
AI is one of the areas we teach, and it's the one people ask about most. Most aren't asking how to do more with it. They're asking whether it's safe. Whether their data ends up somewhere it shouldn't. Whether cultural knowledge gets pulled into a tool nobody here controls. Whether the answer it gives them is even right.
Those are fair questions, and every program starts with them. You don't have to like AI to use it well. You do need to know where the edges are.
The safety material isn't tacked on at the end. It sets the rules for the rest of the day, and people take it back to their workplace.
Personal details, client records, anything confidential to your organisation. Where the line sits and why.
Keeping language, stories and Indigenous cultural and intellectual property out of public AI tools unless the right people have said yes.
What the free and paid versions of common tools do with what you type, in plain English.
AI is confident and often wrong. How to test what it gives back before it goes in a report or an email.
Some work should stay human. Sorry business, sensitive community matters and decisions that need a person's judgement.
Leaving with a plain-language AI use guide your organisation can adopt or adapt.
How students rated the first Strait Minds day, run with boarders at Torres Strait Kaziw Meta on Thursday Island. Every student left confident directing AI.
All in person, all built on local examples. Choose by who will be in the room, or ask us to shape a day around your team.
Safe, everyday use of AI on the work your staff already do: emails, reports, funding applications and meeting notes.
One day. Groups of 10 to 12. From $695 + GST per person
For leaders who make big calls a long way from backup. Building resilience and confidence, using AI well at a senior level and knowing how to guide and support your team's use of it.
One day. No more than 10 people. From $995 + GST per person
Students learn to direct AI, question what it gives back and keep themselves safe online. Now taking bookings for 2027.
One day. Groups of 6 to 10. From $695 + GST per student
Flying a sub-250 g drone safely and legally, with consent and wildlife in mind. CASA operator accreditation done on the day.
One day. Groups of 5 to 8. From $895 + GST per person
Managed well, tourism feeds a community. Left alone, it burns the house down. What to accept, what to charge and what to turn away. Piloted on Badu Island in 2025 as part of a wider session, now expanded into a full program.
One day, delivered on Country. From $795 + GST per person
How the north actually works, from the weather and the logistics to how to conduct yourself, before the first trip.
Emver Partners is a non-Indigenous firm. This program does not replace Traditional Owner-led cultural training.
One day. Closed group or individual. From $1,299 + GST per person
Prices are a starting point. Your final quote depends on whether a venue needs to be hired, catering, the number of people and the number of sessions. Discounts are available when you book more than one session.
Every program that works with AI teaches RACE, a simple four-step way of briefing an AI tool so the answer fits your place, your job and your rules. It works the same for a Year 8 student as it does for a CEO.
The full framework, with worksheets and local examples, is taught on the day.
Northern Academy grew out of a decade of sitting in meetings, community halls and council chambers across the Torres Strait and Cape York.
The same problem kept coming up. Small teams carry big workloads with almost no backup. The specialist is a flight away, the grant is due Friday and the report still needs writing. Good training takes some of that weight. So can AI, used carefully.
So the programs start where people are. The examples are local: a council briefing, a PBC funding application, a ranger's field report. Nobody has to translate a city case study into island life.
Northern Academy, a training division of Emver Partners based on Thursday Island with an office in Cairns, runs face-to-face training across the Torres Strait, Cape York and northern Australia. Programs cover AI and digital skills, leadership, youth, tourism, drone operations and working in the north. John Palmer, Managing Director of Emver Partners, designed the programs and facilitates most of them.
No. AI is one of Northern Academy's key areas, alongside leadership, youth programs, tourism, drone operations and preparing people to work in the north. Every program is built from Emver Partners' work in the Torres Strait and Cape York and uses local examples, and more programs are in development.
Northern Academy's AI Foundations for Northern Australia is a one-day program built for councils, PBCs, NGOs, government and business teams in remote northern Australia. It starts with safe use: what never goes into AI, protecting cultural knowledge, who sees your data and how to check what AI gives back. Every example is local.
AI can be safe in a remote organisation when staff know what never to put into it and how to check what comes back, and every Northern Academy program starts there. Participants cover privacy, Indigenous cultural and intellectual property and when not to use AI, and each organisation leaves with a plain-language AI use guide it can adapt.
Northern Academy programs start from these per-person prices, ex GST: AI Foundations for Northern Australia from $695, The Isolated Leader from $995, Strait Minds from $695 per student, Drone Ready North from $895, Tourism is like Fire from $795 and The Northern Briefing from $995. Prices are a starting point: the final quote depends on venue hire, catering, the number of people and the number of sessions, and discounts apply when you book more than one session. Use the Contact us button for a quote.
Northern Academy delivers in your community or workplace across the Torres Strait, Cape York, Cairns and northern Australia. Emver Partners has worked on Thursday Island, Badu, Mer, Erub, Dauan, Ugar, Saibai, Masig, Poruma, Warraber, Iama, Boigu and St Pauls on Moa Island, and in Bamaga, Weipa, Lockhart River and Cooktown.
No. Every Northern Academy program is one day, face to face. Connectivity across much of remote northern Australia makes online training unreliable, and people learn better with a facilitator in the room and examples from their own work.
No. Northern Academy is not a Registered Training Organisation and its programs are not nationally accredited. They are practical, one-day capability programs, and participants receive a record of completion.
Often, yes. Suitable grants and funding programs for skills, digital capability and community development open regularly through state and federal agencies, and Northern Academy can help you identify current options when you enquire. Funding rounds come and go, so it pays to ask early.
No. Most Northern Academy programs start from scratch, and plenty of participants arrive sceptical. The Isolated Leader assumes some basic use of tools like ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini.
RACE is a simple four-step method Northern Academy uses to teach people how to brief AI tools so the answers fit your place, your job and your rules. It is taught in full on the day in every Northern Academy program that works with AI.
No. Northern Academy is a division of Emver Partners, a non-Indigenous firm based on Thursday Island. Emver works alongside Traditional Owner organisations, PBCs and councils, and its programs do not replace Traditional Owner-led cultural training.
Northern Academy matches programs to who is in the room. Staff in councils, PBCs, NGOs and government: AI Foundations. Senior leaders and boards: The Isolated Leader. Schools, Years 7 to 12: Strait Minds. Drone work: Drone Ready North. Tourism operators: Tourism is like Fire. People heading north for work: The Northern Briefing.
Yes. Northern Academy designs custom one-day programs for organisations across northern Australia. Tell us who it is for and what they need to get better at, and we will scope it with you. Use the Contact us button on this page and we usually reply within two business days.
Tell us who the group is, roughly how many people and where you are. We reply personally, usually within two business days.