Youth Unemployment is a term used for people between the ages of 15-19, that do not attend school or tertiary level and don’t have any form of paid job. There are reasons causing this growing problem. These being;employers not wanting inexperienced woorkers,the low rate of pay andthe transition period from education to the workforce after the completion of year 12. Fortunately, there are a vast majority of “youth friendly industries”. This implies that, when certain companies are labelled a “youth friendly industry” not only do they employ trained adults but also the inexperienced youth of society. To further develop skills and decline the rate of early school leavers, the government has intervened to counteract this situation in a few ways.
Three of the most popular programs are;Aus Study Payments,VET courses and facilities to train people undergoing transition from schooling to work. Why youth are unemployed To increase production and sales, employers often seek workers that are more experienced. This limits the youth to a small portion of jobs. Due to their inexperience and lack of knowledge, employers do not want to spend money and time training them.
But in other cases where firms accept inexperience, the pay tends to be very low, which doesn’t attract them from working. The inexperienced youth pay rates range from $5-$10 per hour. But alarmingly, in part-time work the most employable age is between 15-19 years of age holding 28% of males working part-time. The employers see them as less efficient and less valuable so their pay is legally less. In some circumstances you will find that companies employ allot of the youth population, thus they can cut back on their total amount of wages they owe and earn larger profits.
There are, in some cases, firms that employ young and inexperienced workers, as mentioned before they are usually known as “youth friendly industries”. Industries such as McDonalds, Coles/Myer, Safeway/Woolworths and KFC just to name a few, are the leading retail and takeaway outlets employing youth. Not only do they employ them but they provide them with the essential training to perform their duties with maximum efficiency. Some people see working as an obstacle towards school and homework and others don’t want to work for ridiculously low pay. In conjunction with a high youth unemployment rate the government has introduced schemes to counteract this problem and to keep the youth population in school and out of the workforce. “Youth Friendly Industries”As the number of school leavers increases, the government has taken action in a few ways.
The first program is “Aus study” payments. This means that if you’re in year 12 and your parents earn a particularly low wage you receive this payment. The other more popular program is VET (Vocational Education and Training) courses. This is more effective in keeping youth at school to complete year 11 and 12. This also teaches them new skills as well as getting paid for their duties.
This is the course outline; it covers over 40 areas where you work for 2 days, go to school for 2 days and go to TAFE for the remaining 1 day. This will enable students to complete their VCE (Victorian Certificate of Education Years 11 + 12) and gain a VET qualification in their selected traineeship or apprenticeship. (To see statistics related to trends of tertiary and school attendance, CLICK HERE)As government intervention starts to take more effect you may see the numbers of unemployed youth start to decline slowly. More funding should go into new projects instead on leisure facilities or profit making projects. This will increase the efficiency of the youth, keep them in school, reduce the total unemployment rate and make them more employable for their future.
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