National Youth Employment Body

The Brotherhood of St Laurence has been funded by the Department of Jobs and Small Business to host the establishment of a National Youth Employment Body

The Brotherhood of St Laurence has been funded by the Department of Jobs and Small Business to host the establishment of a National Youth Employment Body (NYEB) over two years, commencing in 2018. The Brotherhood’s NYEB is a forum to: capture and co-develop good practice youth employment service models; use existing research and on ground learnings to inform future service delivery; and mobilise employer effort and expertise to scale nationally.

Recently, there has been considerable investment into youth unemployment by the Federal Government. The Brotherhood is uniquely positioned to drive this work due to its Research and Policy Centre and approach to service delivery and co-design that enables the Brotherhood to work collaboratively across key sectors. This is achieved through individual partnerships, as well as facilitating and resourcing communities of practice and community investment committees to co-develop evidence informed service design and practice development. The Brotherhood’s work with communities is underpinned by a recognition of the considerable expertise community embedded organisations hold, as well as the power of locally based solutions. 

The NYEB will focus on identifying innovative ideas and good practice from the ground in up to four priority regions in the first year. The Brotherhood will lead in the strategic direction of the body, manage and coordinate key partnerships, and provide in-kind support through infrastructure and resources. The Brotherhood’s Research and Policy Centre, in partnership with the University of Melbourne, will provide expertise on existing research and evidence in youth employment practice and policy. 

The NYEB will work alongside employers, the community sector, service providers, skills and training sectors, government, and young people to understand and document the enabling conditions needed to transition young people into sustainable work. 

The collated data and learnings, alongside existing research on national and international evidence, will be used to identify key good practice principles for moving young people into work that are flexible and adaptable according to place. The Brotherhood will present these in the form of a national platform of knowledge, including practice and implementation frameworks and tools to inform current and future service delivery. 

 To do this, the NYEB will focus on five key priority areas:

  • practice and service design: developing consistent, good practice service models and tools through co-production with key stakeholders; 
  • research and policy development: gathering existing national and international research and data, and integrating this with learnings on the ground, to advise on service improvement;  
  • building provider capacity and access to good practice: increasing the capacity of locally embedded organisations to develop, monitor, and scale up innovative ideas;
  • mobilising employer effort and expertise: leveraging existing local, state and national industry and employer networks; and
  • linking local, regional and national solutions: developing models and strategies to integrate efforts of service providers, employers, education providers, and government at a local level

Contact us for further information on the National Youth Employment Body.

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