Youth jobs scheme

14 comments on “Youth jobs scheme ”

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1. Policy Parrot 1

   5 May 2011 at 12:29 pm

   Despite the 90-day workplace trial claim that more employees will get an opportunity to prove themselves, this has not been the case in the majority of cases. Employers will still go for the best candidate(s). Usually, this will come with the caveat of experience.

   Of course, this precludes the great conundrum, how are new employees to gain practical experience if they have no opportunity to do so? Working as a unpaid intern will get you so far, but since you are already prepared to work for nothing, there is always a high possibility that you will never be remunerated, and new employees, as people – do have bills to pay and families to feed.

   Anything that can encourage employers to allow potential new employees to take a step into a practical work situation should be encouraged. Of course, such a policy will cause a certain dislocation in the employment market, but none that compares to the current scenario facing many entering the workforce for the first time.

   The Government should however, insist in those whose industries’ employers will have access to this money, that any experience and/or qualifications gained be meaningful in both employment and remuneration opportunities.
2. Ben 2

   5 May 2011 at 12:43 pm

   This is part of the problem though – slash funding for something, then a year (or whenever) later announce some funding for a similar service or program as *new* funding even though it doesn’t replace the funding that was cut.

   There seems to be an incentive for successive governments to do this, so they can claim to have done something, and the (now) opposition can’t claim credit for the solution.

   And of course it takes more money to set up a new program than continue something that is working, and institutional knowledge is lost as committed people have to find work in other fields, so the reality is usually reduced outcomes for the same cost.
   • Lanthanide 2.1

     5 May 2011 at 1:01 pm

     This has come back to bite ACC very hard with regard to supporting victims of sexual assault. I was listening to someone on the radio talking about what happened with therapists and psychologists leaving the field, or even the country, after they changed the service. The person was estimating that it’ll take 2-3 years to get back to where they were before, in terms of the services available.
     • Colonial Viper 2.1.1

       5 May 2011 at 2:24 pm

       Yep, laying waste to NZ expert capabilities. No worries though as Australia has 500,000 new jobs beckoning over the next 2 years.
     • Macro 2.1.2

       6 May 2011 at 8:15 pm

       Very true. Am currently in Perth where my son-in-law (a therapist (MA in Health) working primarily as a provider for ACC) has had to come to find work after the cut backs – taking with him, of course his wife MA (hons) BSc Dip Sc Dip Teach.
       Talk about waving your family goodbye!
3. Campbell Larsen 3

   5 May 2011 at 3:12 pm

   25 million on expanding the use of boot camps, normalizing another generation to war and instilling the kind of unquestioning obedience that has led to countless atrocities down through the ages – I think that says a lot about where the direction that the National party wants to take the country in.

   And typically it is those in poverty and with poor educations who are being lured into a ‘career’ in which paying the ultimate price always a possibility.
   • south paw 3.1

     5 May 2011 at 4:48 pm

     Remember in the good old US of A all those rich parents scrambling to get their precious darlings out of harms way of military recruitment for Iraq and Afghanistan.
4. south paw 4

   5 May 2011 at 4:51 pm

   “Tackling youth unemployment!” – kind of headlines a government wants to create in an election year.
5. ron 5

   5 May 2011 at 6:10 pm

   I’m amazed at the LSV increase.
   LSV has struggled for enrollment numbers and spent a lot of time over this last period scrabbling around looking for support from underfunded community agencies for their graduates. \
   “We’ll take the $millions but when these people graduate we want you to pick up the pieces when they get back home – oh, sorry we don’t have funding for that”
   A far better way to spend this money would be to engage young people in training.
   This is a dumb decision from a minister in a dumb government.
   • Vicky32 5.1

     5 May 2011 at 7:00 pm

     Absolutely right ron and Campbell Larsen. My Dad went into the Army in 1938, because of poverty – and ended up with a wrecked life. 🙁
6. Peter 6

   5 May 2011 at 7:32 pm

   Agree with your sentiments and very pleased to see this, the issue of unemployment is at least being acknowledged. The market does not solve all issues, least of all full-employment. Inspiration can be taken from the recent Australian Government initiative to foster 500000 more jobs.
   • Lanthanide 6.1

     6 May 2011 at 12:17 am

     Wow, 500,000 more jobs. That’s really ambitious. Won’t that essentially be a full-employment policy?
     • Vicky32 6.1.1

       6 May 2011 at 12:58 am

       Well, I will be wrapt if there really will be 500 000 jobs! Then maybe we olds will get a look in? 😀
7. Fred 7

   6 May 2011 at 4:02 pm

   Frankly, it smacks of desperation. If you have to put young people through a six week job hunting confidence building course run by the military you are sending the message that there is nothing out there in the local or national labour market for them.

   Most kids – like most other voting citizens – want regular, paid, productive work which supplies the necessaries of life and lets them fulfil their potential. Those with the means and education will have broader horizons and have already decamped abroad.

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