[Sub ID 4667] Wrap around training and workplace experience (Wesley Mission Queensland trading as Career Keys)

Submission ID: 4667
Organisation name: Wesley Mission Queensland trading as Career Keys
Contact name: Dr Judy Wollin
State: QLD
Contact email: j.wollin@wmq.org.au
Contact number: 0409550817

Which priority group of the Try, Test and Learn Fund does your idea support?
Young parents

What need or issue are you trying to address?
The key issues Career Keys is addressing young parents include overcoming:

The stalling of their education which often results in:

  • Insufficient literacy and numeracy skills to gain employment
  • Insufficient skills required to achieve employment
  • Inadequate links with the workplace to access job opportunities

Career Keys is in Marsden, City of Logan. Logan is home to many people who are disadvantaged; 51% aged 15 years or more have no post high school qualification, 30% of low income families rely on DSS as their source of income and 19% of children in jobless families. Within Logan 8.6% of families are single parent families with one or more children under the age of 15 years; nearly twice the state average. This research is supported by work completed by Logan together.

Maternal age at time of birth across Logan in 2013-14 for under 25 year olds was 26%. This is nearly twice the national average of 17%. This indicates that there are large number of young parents who are highly at risk of interrupted education and long term unemployment in Career Key’s catchment.

Not only is general unemployment higher than the national average in Logan, youth unemployment in 2011 was 15% (national average of 12%). Participation in unpaid work and volunteering, is also lower (12%) than the national average (15.7%).

What is your idea?
Objective: A wrap around service: training, peer mentoring and work experience program for young parents

The young parents who are the focus of this program often have interrupted schooling. They may not have had a strong schooling history prior to becoming a parent.

  • Part 1 – Focuses on building literacy and numeracy skills in preparation to successfully complete a Cert III. This is highly structured and includes accredited training, peer support and work preparation skills.
  • Part 2 – Focuses on beginning the CertIII in Education Support and placement of the students as volunteers in the workplace and provides supervised homework centre with access to computers.
  • Part 3 – Focuses on completing the CertIII in Education Support with the participants transitioning from unstructured volunteering to structured industry experience meeting the industry placement needs of their CertIII in Education Support, continuing their study and continued use of the peer supervised homework centre with access to computers.

There is evidence that ‘Well-designed work experience programs can clearly play an important role in the transition from education to work, helping to develop valuable work-based skills, enhancing employment prospects through the development of professional networks and assisting job-seekers to match their human capital profile to labour market demands’. Unpaid Work Experience in Australia. Prevalence, nature and impact, December 2016,