Not just any job … the right job in a sustainable community

The majority of employment-related programs are now with the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR), making it easier for clients to move between programs more easily. However, this change also means there will be an increasing focus on the costs involved, possibly at the expense of social and personal outcomes for clients. This is of concern as many clients who are currently in programs, such as the Personal Support Program, require a great deal of support to deal with personal issues before they are ready to join an employment program.

What we want to suggest is that programs and service delivery need to be more flexible, and the policy parameters of performance indicators and attendant payment regimes need to be able to acknowledge and reward a range of outcomes apart from purely economic ones, if they are to help the most highly disadvantaged job seekers.

Looking forwards: where to from here?

So where does government employment policy need to move in the future? Essentially, the policies in place at present are increasingly aimed at the achievement of employment outcomes. This is certainly an improvement over the previous more disjointed system: however I would argue that in the long-term it will not be sufficient. While it may fulfil the government’s policy goal of moving people off welfare benefits and into work, it will fall short of meeting community expectations.

Increasingly communities are concerned with issues of place, community involvement and benefit, social capital and social entrepreneurship. They are also increasingly aware of environmental sustainability, particularly in relation to resources such as water and energy, and to the preservation of natural habitat and the protection of green spaces and endangered flora and fauna.

Communities are expecting and indeed, demanding, that governments at all levels address these wider concerns through an increasingly holistic approach to all they do. The growing expectations of triple bottom line reporting and social and environmental impact assessments, in addition to more traditional financial and economic reporting and assessment, is evidence of this trend.

It is only a matter of time before they expect and insist on, employment programs that recognise and embed social and environmental outcomes in addition to the focus on employment.

Programs will need to provide sustainable economic outcomes for individual clients - a job; social outcomes - a meaningful job, improvement in self-esteem and motivation, health; and environmental outcomes - contributing to peoples’ sense of place, feeling of being part of a vibrant and environmentally sustainable community. In short, employment programs of the future will need to deliver more than just a job. They will need to deliver the right job in a sustainable community

So is it possible? Does any model exist? Happily it does in the Green Corps program.

Green Corps

The Green Corps program is funded by the Australian Government and gives young people the opportunity to participate in projects designed to preserve and restore Australia's natural environment and heritage. Participants gain improved career and employment prospects through accredited training, structured work activities and work experience.

Green Corps projects make a significant contribution to rural and regional areas, with about 85 per cent of projects based in those areas. It provides an opportunity for many young people (60 per cent of participants are early school leavers) to engage in an educational and training program which will provide them with new skills and a qualification. The high number of Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander (11 per cent) participants demonstrates the program’s ability to be adaptive to the particular needs of different groups.

The Green Corps program in many ways exemplifies a model of service delivery that has a focus on helping disadvantaged people, while also having the ability to be flexible and innovative, especially when compared to Job Network services. The Green Corps program has a focus beyond economic outcomes, and is able to report on social, cultural and environmental outcomes.

Case study - the Mia Mia revegetation project

The Mia Mia Aboriginal Art Gallery, situated in Westerfold's Park in Templestowe is on Wurundjeri land. It is an indigenous art gallery that promotes Aboriginal artists as well as educating the community about the historical importance of the park and the customs of the traditional owners of the land. The Green Corps project was initiated by the gallery and delivered in partnership with JobCo.