This submission responds to the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations’ 2013 issues paper, Employment Services: Building on Success.
The issues paper sought comments on several key themes, including meeting the needs of job seekers, and working in partnership with employers and other services.
Our submission identifies three areas for employment services reform:
- Effective support between services to build people’s capabilities – many disadvantaged people engage with multiple services and are not provided with intense, ongoing and meaningful support.
- Pathways to meaningful participation – training, skills development, work experience and
opportunities for participation in the community need to be provided through an incentivised human services system. - Transforming organisations – transactional engagement with employers needs to be replaced by genuine engagement focused on building shared values for disadvantaged people, employers and communities.
The submission includes 16 recommendations that show how to comprehensively reform these areas.