By Casey Neill
Greater Dandenong has unveiled an action plan to get young people into jobs.
In one of his last acts as mayor, councillor Jim Memeti launched the Mayoral Youth Employment Taskforce Action Plan on Monday 13 November.
The council established the group in January to in response to high rates of youth disengagement and unemployment.
Representatives from all levels of government, business and industry, community services, and the education sector came together at four meetings between May and October to identify critical gaps and develop a response.
The taskforce found young people in Greater Dandenong left school earlier, were less likely to attend university, were more often disengaged from employment and education, and were more likely to be unemployed later in life than those throughout Melbourne.
Simon Whiteley from Corex was among the taskforce members.
“A significant challenge faced by many local businesses has been recruiting new employees to support the broad range of skills required in local industries,” he said.
“If we’re successful it will go a long way towards meeting the chronic shortfall of suitable employees needed by local businesses while providing a long-term career many more young people in the community.”
The action plan’s first objective is to bring together young people and industry.
A jobs fair is planned for next year along with a meet and greet event targeting disengaged school finishers and potential employers.
Objective two is engaging parents in career planning and pathways.
In response, the council plans to run a pilot project with vulnerable families to promote a whole of family approach to improving employment outcomes.
Objective three is early intervention for young people at risk of disengagement.
South East Local Learning and Employment Network (SELLEN) will advocate for programs that support young people’s re-engagement in education ahead of next year’s State Election.
Members of the council’s Young Leaders program also assisted the taskforce.
They had independently identified unemployment as a key issue facing young people in Greater Dandenong and welcomed the opportunity to complement the taskforce’s work.
“We created the young leaders apprenticeship and traineeship forum, which was to increase awareness around the opportunities available for young people to get into, specifically traineeships and apprenticeships,” Saduni said.
“In our community we identified there was a lack of interest and there are a lot of job opportunities in the area for traineeships and apprenticeships.”
Kelly said the feedback from stallholders was that the event was successful, and there’s hope it will return next year.
