[Sub ID 4520] Pathway planners for young parents (DALE Young Parents’ School)

Submission ID: 4520
Organisation name: DALE Young Parents’ School
Contact name: Mrs Jaime Boys
State: NSW
Contact email: jaime.boys@spcc.nsw.edu.au

Which priority group of the Try, Test and Learn Fund does your idea support?
Young parents, Young students at risk of long-term unemployment

What need or issue are you trying to address?
Currently, there are in existence, organizations which provide, integrated intensive, wraparound support services for young parents, addressing the needs and barriers for young parents to successfully re-engage back into education.

The issue is the transition from education/study to employment and the lack of suitable support systems in place critical for young parents to have sustainable employment once they complete their educational studies.

According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, individuals require fundamental elements in life in order to thrive; for young parents’, these needs are often not met so their success is limited. In most learning experiences, there are four key stages individuals advance through until the skill is developed – Acquisition, Fluency, Generalize and Adaptation (Haring, Lovitt, Eaton, & Hansen, 1978).

Our qualitative research demonstrates, due to the layers of complexities that occur for many young parents, a large proportion of this cohort complete their education/study whilst in the generalised stage of learning, meaning, they are not yet fully developed in their social/emotional behavior to effectively use their skills in different settings or situations, particularly when challenging issues arise. This cohort are often socially isolated, it is critical to maintain strong support networks, congruent to a young parents studies.

What is your idea?
Integrating a new role of “Pathway Planner” within existing services that support young parents’ to continue and strengthen established relationships and trust in a safe environment toward sustained participation of employment. This role would support young parents’ as they transition from study/education into a sustained employment pathway.

What does this role look like – The Pathway Planner would be embedded within the young parent service to build relationship and familiarity prior to the young person completing their education/study. Critically, the Pathway Planner has developed preliminary knowledge and understanding of each young person which creates a strong rapport to advise them on individualized employment pathways and provide ongoing holistic support once the young person has transitioned from study/education, to ensure the sustainability within the workplace.

Further to this, the Pathway Planner is the bridge that continues the support in movement from of the fluency phase (The student (a) has learned skill well enough to retain (b) has learned skill well enough to combine with other skills, (c) is as fluent as peers.) to the adaptation phase (is fluent and accurate in skill and applies skill across different situations, settings) which is often where young people struggle when completing their education/study and have lost the support network of their educators (Haring, N.G., Lovitt, T.C., Eaton, M.D., & Hansen, C.L. (1978)

The Pathway Planner is a co-conduit for the young parent, the employer, employment services and any other organization, service or situation the young parent relates with, to maximize the long-term engagement of sustainable employment.