There are plenty of jobs available for young people in regional Victoria, but COVID-19 has caused challenges accessing work experience, according to new research being presented on Wednesday.
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A small team of young interns conducted interviews with North East based industry leaders and employers to find out what they were looking for in young employees.
Research leader Jeannette Pope said the striking thing about the research was there were plenty of opportunities for young people in regional areas, but youth didn't know about them.
"[Young people] are being bombarded by a lot of negative messages in the media about how the industries in which young people work have collapsed and that's not true," she said.
IN OTHER NEWS:
"Young people are getting less and less motivated and feeling more and more depressed, which we saw with our interns, but unnecessarily so, there are actually a lot of opportunities that match their interests out in the regions at the moment."
Ms Pope said the research also demonstrated that work experience was vital for young people to help them get their first job, but it had negatively impacted by COVID-19.
She said many activities that young people could use as work experience on their resume, including community sport or volunteering, had been cancelled due to lockdowns and restrictions.
IN COVID NEWS:
"So if there was a crisis, that would be what it is," she said.
"You can't get your first job unless you've got work experience and you can't get work experience until you get your first job, so it's a real conundrum."
"It's the community's responsibility now to think 'what can we do to provide alternatives?'."
Research intern Jamie Weber said one of the key things she learnt during the project was that work experience didn't formal paid employment.
"It's very different to what I thought it was," she said.
"You can put things like baby sitting or coaching down as work experience, it doesn't have to be in a cafe or supermarket."
Ms Weber said finding jobs was challenging.
"Accessibility can be a little bit difficult sometimes," she said.
"A lot of us agreed that finding jobs online was a bit more difficult, like where should they look and what sort of key words should we use to find what we're looking for."
The research presentation will run from 10.30am to 11am.
You can join the Zoom Meeting at: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85980461731?pwd=N1pzKzBKWXhYY09qUGFqUTBKVFdIZz09
Meeting ID: 859 8046 1731
Passcode: 300697
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