A RECENT forum on the Sunshine Coast has highlighted the shocking statistic that up to 44 per cent of the region’s 15-19 year olds are unable to find sustainable employment.
In addition, while the state’s youth unemployment rate (15-25 year olds) hovers at six per cent, on the Sunshine Coast the average rate is 17 per cent – almost triple the state’s figures.
Over 100 delegates representing the economic, employment, business and youth sectors attended the Youth Prosperity Forum, held on November 12, and hosted by the Sunshine Coast Business Council.
The event included presentations by some of Australia’s most knowledgeable researchers and leaders in youth issues, and encouraged commitment from government and the business community to take responsibility for the issue.
The big question moving forward however, is what is actually being done to reduce the alarming rate of unemployment amongst our youth?
Youth Prosperity Forum outcomes
While the forum was about creating a united approach and taking responsibility, Sunshine Coast Business Council Chair, Sandy Zubrinich, said there were several substantial and tangible outcomes.
“We are in the process of making appointments to brief the Mayor and our state and federal members on the success of the Youth Prosperity Forum and the fact that over 120 people thought it was a sufficiently important regional issue to take the time out to attend,” Ms Zubrinich said.
“We are proposing to hold six monthly round table discussions, the first scheduled for around May 2014 to follow up on some of the initiatives that are being undertaken and to see what is working and importantly, to keep the spotlight on the youth unemployment issue.”
Ms Zubrinich said the SCBC was also in the early stages of a proposal to introduce a business-mentoring program in partnership with Local Employment Coordinator, Kris McCue, which the hope of having something concrete early next year.
Mr McCue helped organise the Youth Prosperity Forum and partnered with Tourism Noosa to deliver the highly successful ‘Welcome To Noosa’ campaign earlier this year, with plans underway for a further program next year.
“Part of that campaign was providing better customer service in the hospitality industry. We also ran a program giving 15 young people extra training in the industry,” Mr McCue explained.
“10 to 12 people got employment out of the 15 that went through the program. We looked at those key skills that young people need that local operators wanted and they were built into that program specifically.
“What was fantastic about it was they actually had the support of Tourism Noosa and their members. To have the industry driving the program was pretty critical; and that was one of the big drivers in the Youth Forum.
“It was the Sunshine Coast Business Council saying businesses are aware of this issue and we need to turn our collective energy doing something about it. In that respect, it was quite unique.”
Along with the mentoring program and continuing round table discussions, Mr McClue said he hoped to encourage more businesses to provide important work experience.
“We have the conundrum of you need experience to get a job, but how do you get experience without getting a job,” he explained.
“We did a survey across the Sunshine Coast earlier this year and what employers are saying is it’s not so much technical skills that are the issue; it’s what is normally called soft skills that really should be called critical skills – which is your employability skills. Things like Communications skills and the ability to work as a team.
“So what we’re also looking at doing out of this forum is something around work experience at an employer level.
“Whilst the majority are small businesses on the coast, you’ve got the opportunity to hopefully harness these people in the short term and hopefully what you’d get then is a two-way exchange because young people are tech savvy, they bring energy and enthusiasm and have their own skillset to share.”
Sunshine Coast Council initiatives
On a local government level, Community Programs portfolio and Division 5 Councillor Jenny McKay, said Council was well aware of the limited employment opportunities for youth on the Coast.
“This year council launched Sunshine Coast – The Natural Advantage: Regional Economic Development Strategy 2013-2033. It’s a bold plan that aims to increase the number of high-value industries and jobs in the areas of health, education, tourism, aviation and clean technology,” Cr McKay explained.
“All of these industries have the potential to generate higher-paying, enduring employment opportunities on the back of ‘game changer’ projects like the Sunshine Coast University Hospital, Maroochydore City Centre and the expansion of the Sunshine Coast Airport.”
Cr McKay said it was imperative that young people on the Sunshine Coast plan their careers and look to the areas where employment opportunities will continue to grow into the future.
“Confidence in the Sunshine Coast economy is steadily growing. It won’t happen overnight but the foundation is in place to create employment opportunities for young people on the Sunshine Coast into the future.”
An example of this is the recently launched initiative ‘The Work Shop’, a training and recruitment centre on the construction site of the Sunshine Coast Public University Hospital (SCUH).
The Work Shop is a partnership between Sunshine Coast Council, The Hornery Institute and Lend Lease; and aims to directly provide 600 jobs for local long-term unemployed over the three years of construction.
Council has also enjoyed continued success with their library based ‘Y Shop’ program, designed to help ‘youngpreneurs’ (12-25 year olds) who want to establish their own businesses.
13-year-old Y-shop graduate, Samara Welbourne, was recently awarded an Encouragement Award for her Enchanted Fairy Houses business at the Sunshine Coast Business Awards.
State Government Strategies
Last week, Minister for Tourism, Major Events, Small Business and the Commonwealth Games Jann Stuckey launched the Think Queensland, buy locally this festive season campaign, aimed at helping bolster small business sales and support local jobs.
The campaign builds on the highly successful ‘Think Queensland, buy locally’ campaign, launched earlier this year in partnership with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland (CCIQ).
“This initiative shows how the Newman Government is supporting Queensland’s small businesses,” Ms Stuckey said.
“Queensland’s 410,000 small businesses represent 96 per cent of all businesses in the state and employ more than one million Queenslanders.
“Each dollar spent in a local business returns many times that amount to the local economy through employee wages, rates and the purchase of goods and materials.”
Last month, the Queensland government also announced a new Ministerial Industry Commission to champion positive change in Queensland’s vocational education and training (VET).
“Through the Commission, industry and employers across Queensland can have a direct influence on the priority of every government-subsidised qualification,” Minister for Education, Training and Employment, The Honourable John-Paul Langbroek said.
“The Newman Government will partner with this highly experienced leadership group as well as the Queensland community to help guide our state toward a more prosperous future through training excellence.”
The Ministerial Industry Commission was announced just two weeks before Queensland took out the top prize in four categories at the 20th annual Australian Training Awards, held in Perth last month.
In June, Minister Langbroek launched the Queensland Government’s reform action plan for further education and training, the ‘Great skills. Real opportunities five year plan’.
“The Newman Government is working hard to make Queensland a state of opportunity once more,” Mr Langbroek said.
“We believe excellence in training will help ensure Queensland apprentices and trainees have job-ready work skills that industry needs now and in the future.”
Federal Programs
On a national level, the Assistant Minister for Employment, Luke Hartsuyker said figures released recently by the ABS reflected the underlying softness of the Australian labour market.
“Particularly concerning is the downturn in jobs for people aged 15–24, with the unemployment rate rising from 11.7 per cent to 13 per cent in the past five months,” Mr Hartsuyker said.
“The Coalition is focused on delivering a strong economy and reducing the impediments to employment growth. Cutting red tape, supporting job creation and increasing productivity will benefit the people in the Noosa community and around Australia. The Coalition is committed to generating a million new jobs over the next five years and two million jobs over the next decade.
“Our Job Commitment Bonus payment of up to $6,500 will encourage long-term unemployed young Australians to find and keep a job.
“We’re also providing financial assistance of up to $6,000 for long-term unemployed job seekers if they move to a regional area to take up a job or up to $3,000 if they move to a metropolitan area. For job seekers with dependents, there is an additional $3,000 payment,” Mr Hartsuyker added.
The overarching aim of last month’s forum was to act as a catalyst for change and aptly demonstrated how local business, government and those close to the coalface can get together to directly tackle the unacceptably high rate of youth unemployment on the Sunshine Coast.
Source: http://thenoosaindependent.com/2013/12/44-per-cent-of-youth-unemployed-whats-being-done/