PaTH to jobs for young jobseekers

10/11/2016

PaTH to jobs for young jobseekers

Llew O’Brien, Federal Member for Wide Bay has today reaffirmed the Coalition Government’s commitment to the innovative three step PaTH programme – Prepare – Trial – Hire.

“The PaTH programme increases the job prospects of young jobseekers by ensuring they are prepared, ready and able to join the workforce”, Mr O’Brien said.

“We need to encourage more businesses to open their door and give young jobseekers the opportunity to make a positive and valuable contribution to their communities, by providing them with the job-ready skills that employers demand.”

The Coalition Government’s three-step Youth Jobs PaTH programme is a key component of the $840 million Youth Employment Package. The programme helps young people become work ready through intensive pre-employment skills training.

Up to 120,000 internships over four years will be available for young Australians to gain real work experience.  An increased wage subsidy for employers who take on young job seekers will provide an incentive for local employers to give young people the opportunity to obtain employment.

The Youth Jobs PaTH three flexible stages include:

• Employability skills training begins in April 2017 to help prepare young job seekers for the workplace. The training will help jobseekers better understand what employers expect of them and give them the skills, attitudes and behaviours required to be successful in a job.

• From April 2017, up to 30,000 young job seekers each year will be eligible to undertake an internship placement of 4 to 12 weeks.  The voluntary internships provide incentives of $1,000 to business to host an intern and a $200 fortnightly payment to job seekers on top of their income support.

• From January 2017 a Youth Bonus wage subsidy of between $6,500 and $10,000 will be available to businesses who take on an eligible young person as an employee or apprentice.

“The Coalition is committed to investing in young Australians to break the cycle of welfare dependency by giving young jobseekers the skills required to find and keep a job, as we work towards growing our economy.”

The 2016-17 Youth Employment Package follows the Government’s earlier $331 million investment in the Youth Employment Strategy.  For more information about the Youth Employment Package visit www.employment.gov.au/path