Lucy Wicks (Robertson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Every day, I am really focused on the importance of delivering more local jobs for the people of my electorate, which is why I rise to commend an important program that will help young people looking for work on the Central Coast. The coalition's new Transition to Work service has been announced and is designed to provided an intensive level of support to those at most risk of long-term unemployment. This includes young people aged 15 to 21 who have left school early and who are not in work or education. It is targeted at helping them address language and literacy challenges; personal, social or behavioural issues; applying for jobs; and to give them support to settle into a job and keep it. It opens the doors to the government's new National Work Experience program, encouraging take-up of apprenticeships and traineeships as a great pathway into employment.

I am advised that the services will be rolled out over the first few months of next year, but right now we are looking for local providers with local connections to look at our exposure draft over the next four weeks and to provide their feedback.

We know that youth unemployment is an issue in my electorate. The latest Department of Employment figures show an above-average youth unemployment rate of around 15 per cent for people aged 15 to 24 across the Central Coast region, but I know that programs like this work. I went to the Skills Generator just a few weeks ago and saw the positive impact of young people working on a short bricklaying course where they got to build a pizza oven. They saw the benefits of what they were doing, and to hear them talk about the opportunities that they can now see in bricklaying was inspiring.