Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I recently hosted a youth PaTH forum in the beautiful seaside town of Esperance in my electorate. This was an opportunity to promote the PaTH program to local businesses and to unemployed young people between 18 and 25. Robyne and Doc Reynolds, owners of the kepa kurl gallery and the Lucky Bean Cafe, attended and spoke about how the PaTH program really worked for them. They took on a local Indigenous girl, Anastasia James, who had been struggling to find employment due to lack of experience and subsequent lack of confidence. During the prepare phase of the program, Anastasia was taught general and specific job-related skills through local employment agency Max Employment. The trial phase then gave Anastasia on-the-job, real-life work experience, with kepa kurl receiving support to train and potentially retrain their intern through the hire phase.

So far in O'Connor, 109 long-term unemployed youth have gained work experience through the PaTH program, with 69 per cent transitioning into ongoing full-time employment. That is an extraordinary figure. We have a textbook, perfect example in the case of Anastasia and kepa kurl. Anastasia agrees she probably has the best job, working in the Lucky Bean Cafe on the beach at Lucky Bay, regularly voted one of the best beaches in the world. I also ran into the Reynolds last weekend in Esperance. They could not be happier with the way things have worked out for their business. I will be hosting youth PaTH forums throughout O'Connor in the coming months, encouraging businesses to embrace the PaTH program and provide meaningful work experience for those young people needing a job.

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