It can be difficult when you’re lumped in with everyone else.
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That is surely the experience of many young people who want to show the world what they can do, yet it appears nobody wants to take them seriously.
Those barriers are especially apparent when it comes down to the simple wish of finding a job, of finding some way into a career path that has defined your goals for years.
It has always been difficult though for young people – regardless of whether they have taken a vocational training path or completed a university degree – to get that crucial opportunity.
That “crucial” aspect of course involves the all-important experience.
Employers want experience that demonstrates both an understanding of the job and a proven track record of reliability, which makes the job-hunting process even that much harder.
This is the situation for many young people in the Border region, though nothing different from what their peers face elsewhere across the nation.
It is within that context that a special campaign has been launched to try to help young people on the Border – the targeted aged range is 15- to 24-years-old – land a job.
Project 100 is just what it says – Job agencies The Personnel Group, MADEC, CVGT, Sureway and Eworks hope the program will help leverage 100 young people into jobs in April.
And as an added incentive for these job-seekers, a $200 fortnightly bonus on top of their Newstart allowance will be paid should they secure an internship. Certainly there are plenty of innovative ways these days, through our schools and universities and a range of other programs, to get young people into work.
But the high unemployment rate continues to persist on the Border.
Project 100 therefore is an innovative approach to trying to break through these barriers.
It is noteworthy that the program has won the backing of the Albury and Wodonga mayors and of Farrer MP Sussan Ley.
As Eworks recruitment consultant Ali Johnson pointed out, “this benefits absolutely every kind of business because there’s someone that wants to work in whatever industry there is”.
We wholeheartedly commend Project 100 and wish it every success.
