My Chance, Our Future
The Australian unemployment rate for 15 to 24 year olds has reached 14 % in October. Jo Buick explains how the Brotherhood of St Laurence’s campaign is raising awareness about this alarming figure.
In February 2014, the Brotherhood of St Laurence launched the national campaign, My Chance, Our Future, to draw attention to the crisis of youth unemployment in Australia.
We launched this campaign because both our practice experience and research analysis indicate that Australia urgently needs a new approach to assist jobless young people to build their qualifications, skills and experience to obtain a job in the modern economy.
Australian Bureau of Statistics data highlights the extent of the problem young jobseekers face: In October 2014 the national unemployment rate for 15 to 24 year olds reached 14 per cent. The last time it was that high was in 2001. As the Brotherhood’s Executive Director Tony Nicholson has said, “We can’t just stand by idly and watch this scenario unfold in our communities”.
My Chance, Our Future is a campaign designed to increase public awareness about the challenges that young jobseekers face and to stimulate an informed national discussion about how to best address this issue through policy and program innovations.
Our regular Youth Unemployment Monitor e-newsletter is a key way of communicating the campaign to the public. The Monitor is a useful and accessible source of current information and policy analysis. Past issues have mapped youth unemployment geographic ‘hot spots’ around Australia, explored national unemployment trends, and profiled successful youth employment initiatives. But it’s not all facts and figures. In the Monitor, we also present the human stories of youth unemployment and the challenges that young people face in a tough entry-level job market.
These real-life stories reveal a labour environment that is both complicated and competitive for young Australians who have left school early and/or experience social exclusion. Young people who have agreed to be profiled in short video presentations speak about how willing and passionate they are about finding a job – applying for dozens of jobs every week, cold calling, door knocking and completing accredited courses in the hope of securing employment.
But they also tell us how demoralising it is to be job-seeking in a tough labour market, how difficult it is to find an opportunity to move from underemployment into full-time work, and how the constant search for employment can lead to anxiety and feelings of social exclusion.
My Chance, Our Future is a campaign designed to raise awareness about the challenges that young jobseekers experience. But it is also a campaign that encourages Australians to rethink negative or limiting assumptions and stereotypes about young people, by providing real jobseekers with a platform to voice their vocational aspirations and the challenges they have encountered. We believe that their stories are an important part of repositioning young people as capable, talented and essential contributors to our national economy and future.
Jo Buick is the Brotherhood’s Project and Strategy Manager for Youth Transitions. She has a background in secondary school teaching, community-based education and youth pathways coordination. As a member of the Brotherhood’s Through School to Work Leadership Team, Jo contributes to the internal strategic planning and external critical youth policy responses. In her role Jo also develops innovative education models and works with diverse teams to reinvigorate program design and key advocacy messages. These programs include Education First Youth Foyer, Youth Transitions Program, Community VCAL and Youth Connections.
