Australia needs job cadet program to avert employment crisis for young people

The report, Averting an Escalating Labour Market Crisis for Young People in Australia: A Proposed National Job Cadet Program, argues that utilising parts of Australia’s apprenticeship platform in new occupations, not covered by the current system, will create the tens of thousands of jobs needed to avert a major crisis in the youth labour market.

“There is very strong evidence that combining an employment contract with formal education and training improves employment outcomes,” said Professor Peter Dawkins, Vice-Chancellor of Victoria University and the report’s co-author. “This job cadetship program will help reverse the long-term deterioration in youth employment outcomes that the pandemic has intensified.”

New research in the report shows that school leavers and recent graduates have been hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic. While there has been a small improvement in other parts of the labour market, recent graduates have missed out with 100,000 fewer jobs available than before the pandemic.

Most concerning is the increase in young people who are not in employment, education or training (NEET). NEET is an indicator of disengagement and is associated with higher rates of long-term unemployment and underemployment, and a lifetime engagement with the workforce characterised by insecure work and low pay.

“Without action, Australia faces an explosion in the number of young people who are NEET,” Professor Dawkins said. “The next wave will come at the start of 2021 when an additional 120,000 young people graduate from education with gloomy job prospects to say the least.”

To avert the crisis, the report recommends a series of incentives for employers to hire young people. Ai Group Chief Executive, Innes Willox said: “The best way to help young people into work is to provide incentives to employers to create real jobs that develop their skills and lay the foundations for long term sustainable employment. Government support for the Job Cadet program will help prevent young people being the biggest economic casualties of the current pandemic-driven recession.”

Professor David Lloyd, report co-author and University of South Australia Vice-Chancellor, said customised training would embed learning in the workplace.

“This cadetship program is more aligned to the German model of employer-based learning and will leave a legacy of improved pathways from education to work,” Professor Lloyd said.

The report outlines two streams of a cadetship program. The first stream is a longer form ‘higher apprenticeship’ program of one to four years, which extends current apprenticeship arrangements into higher-level occupations. The second stream is a shorter program of six months to one year aimed at young people who already have some skills or training.

To support the program, the report recommends an employer incentive of between $14,000 and $28,000 per year depending on the cadet and the employer. These amounts align to support the Federal Government already provides as part of the JobSeeker payment and Supporting Apprentices and Trainees Initiative.