[Sub ID 4276] Intensive one-on-one job services counselling (Peter Shankar)

Submission ID: 4276
Contact name: Mr Peter Shankar
State: NSW
Contact email: pankaj233@yahoo.com
Contact number: 0432522941

About the submitter:
Employability Skills Trainer and Assessor/ Employment Consultant / Soft Skills Trainer for 17 years.

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

What need or issue are you trying to address?
The need or issue I am addressing is to provide a consistent support system for a year to a few years if need be to get these young people back to work. Work force participation relies on a individual being in charge of there career path. Someone needs to have to answer to as to why they are not working. A lot of career’s feel that this is there full time job with no one who they have a professional relationship with to question where there work focus is going and what are they doing to get nearer to their work goals?

What they needed is someone to talk to about employment, for a few weeks and then have weekly sessions and slowly monthly sessions where they actually develop a relationship the person and they become accountable to this person for employment. This means that from 2 months to a year they are somehow getting closer of employment. That relationship acts as the basis for them getting into employment. It is the consistency they need, the consistency missing. I have seen this at job networks starting but before the relationship reaps benefits the jobseeker or the consultant leaves, creating the same situation for the care giver has at home – no constant support. The jobseeker slowly stops developing new professional relationships as they all end without an outcome, creating the recipe for long term unemployment. This is the epic truth when you’re young.

What is your idea?
Start off with a employability skills program for 3 weeks, 3 hour a day, 3 days a week. Build repour by conducting a employment based training which includes a 1 to 1 personal learning plan, identify jobseekers skills, what they want to do, education pathways, see how they are coping with the current situation, job search skills, resume building.

This will led to the participants engaging in a routine, understanding the concept of work, having a plan of where they are at.

After 3 weeks we engage with them on a weekly basis for 3 weeks 1 day per week face to face.

After 3 more weeks we speak with them twice a week for 6 weeks and get them to send in applications of what they are sending to employers. For weaker participants weekly face to face session required. After 12 weeks jobseekers have their personal plan fully developed and they will be working towards it.

We offer practical advise depending on what they are encountering. Most young people are unable to tackle the system, don’t know system in’s and out’s, lack motivation, that’s what we do, give them a motivation hit.

After 12 weeks the program becomes more flexible and we meet talk every 2 weeks with calling up when you have a employment related problem. Each jobseeker by this time usually decides whether they want to meet up, chat on the phone, skype.

We don’t force an outcome based on time. Yet act as support system so that they become the ones doing. We are the ones in a sense which they report to in a nice way and tell us what they have done.

For some people an outcome could be a few months, to a few years but the support will be consistent.

Think of it a employability skills program which turns into a group meeting and guidance consultation which eventually uses the learnings \ energy of the group to imbibe confidence and self support over the span of a few years. The repour of the trainer with the clients acts as the backbone as they become confident enough to take there own decisions with a strong support behind them.