Creating Effective Pathways to Employment and Training for Employment Disadvantaged Territorians
Background
The Department of Employment Education and Training commissioned the NT Council of Social Service to undertake a comprehensive review of the challenges faced by the Territory’s employment disadvantaged.
The review concentrated on five key groups: youth, people with a disability, the mature aged, long term unemployed and people from a non-English speaking background.
A team of project consultants from Charles Darwin University, led by Professor Ian Falk, was engaged to consult widely with community, service providers, industry representatives and peak bodies to develop a profile of the issues and needs of these five groups. Indigenous issues were not included as a specific topic of study, however Indigenous issues, along with those of women, those with a criminal record and the hidden unemployed/underemployed are included in the five groups.Report Recommendations
The report, Creating Effective Pathways to Employment and Training for the Employment Disadvantaged in the Northern Territory, presents the research team’s findings.
- Full Report (PDF document, 1.1 megabytes)
- Executive Summary (PDF document, 218 kilobytes)
- The Report in Brief (Word document, 49 kilobytes)
The report states, “The most consistent finding gained from all groups of participants in the study was the need for clearer information, pathways and access points for employment disadvantaged clients”.
Mentoring and case management were identified as key ingredients in the programs that work and the report recommends a consistent regime of program evaluations to provide an evidence base for the sustainability of successful programs.
The report recommends that training programs be flexible and specifically tailored to the needs of the employment disadvantaged. It also suggests, “…meaningful work needs to be available for the employment disadvantaged. This may not necessarily be a case of ‘growing’ further work opportunities, but instead better quarantining and defining work opportunities for employment disadvantaged groups”.The Northern Territory Government has formulated interim responses to all of the report recommendations (21 in total). Through the Employment Disadvantaged Pathways Project Steering Committee (which includes Australian Government and community sector representatives), work has commenced to address the gaps in services and barriers to employment and training outlined in the report. The Steering Committee will systematically work through the report recommendations, and wherever practicable and feasible, develop a cooperative response to implementing those recommendations.
One of the Steering Committee’s first tasks has been to engage KPMG Human Services Practice who will, for the first time in Australia, map all programs and services to assist employment disadvantaged groups.
KPMG will also recommend a knowledge management model or framework that will provide better access to up-to-date information for employment disadvantaged groups and link local communities of practice across the Territory.