Jobs Statewide managing director Wendy-Jayne Williams’ advice to young jobseekers: Put down your phone and chase your career goals

Wendy-Jayne Williams’ hard work built a national employment empire. She says these changes would help push young people into work and solve our skills shortages.

Jobs Statewide managing director Wendy-Jayne Williams says persistence and initiative are key attributes to young jobseekers. Picture: Keryn Stevens

Wendy-Jayne Williams has done “every job that was going”, from her first 5am shift at a sewing factory to cleaning toilets, painting walls and answering phones.

Raised in a Housing Trust home in Adelaide’s northeast by a single mother of seven, Ms Williams was determined to build a career for herself.

Now the 59-year-old runs one of the nation’s most successful employment services and is responsible for putting an estimated 100,000 South Australians into jobs.

And she wants young jobseekers to know they can change their future too – through “action, effort and discipline”.

“I want young ones to get the message that you can start at the reception desk somewhere and one day you could be running the place,” said Ms Williams, who is managing director of national employment services provider Jobs Statewide.

“It all comes down to ... what do they want to do, how much effort they want to put into it and having the plan to do it.”

As part of The Advertiser and Sunday Mail’s Building a Bigger, Better SA campaign, Ms Williams is urging young South Australians to put down their phones, put aside their fears and take their first step on to the career ladder.

“Sometimes they have no desire to enter the workforce because no one in their family has been in the workforce, so they don’t have those examples around them of how to look for a job or even what kind of job they want to do,” she said.

“Sitting at home on your phone isn’t going to achieve anything ... dreaming about being the one-in-a-million influencer.

“What we’re trying to achieve with our Youth Activate program is a job for now, a job to start with, and then plan for their career aspirations. What education do they need ... what’s going to be their long-term goal?”

Jobs Statewide managing director Wendy-Jayne Williams with young jobseeker Jorgia Martin. Picture: Keryn Stevens

Jorgia Martin was referred to the program by Centrelink and has secured a trial at the RM Williams factory in Salisbury.

The 22-year-old has previously worked in a wine bottling factory and had been investigating work in the disability sector.

“Jorgia has had a bit of work here and there but she hasn’t stayed in work, so the challenge is to get her a job that she’s really interested in,” Ms Williams said.

Ms Williams’ working life began when she left school at 15 for a job in a sewing factory, before moving into retail roles.

But a series of events “knocked me about a bit” and she became unemployed in her 20s.

Her close friend died suddenly, aged 23, her grandfather passed away after a short battle with cancer and Ms Williams’ then-husband was diagnosed with a mental illness.

“I went from being successful and working in fashion stores to suddenly feeling like life was too much for me at that point in time and I couldn’t work,” she recalled.

“So I know what it’s like to have the self-esteem and confidence and then to lose it, and to have to build it back again.”

Ms Williams faced the prospect of more time out of the workforce when she fell pregnant with her son Bailey at 33.

Then general manager at Jobs Statewide, she was at a critical point building the business and so chose to return to work six weeks after giving birth.

“I was a single mum with Bailey in tow, so he was brought up around the office,” she said.

Now Ms Williams says governments should do more to ensure parents can stay connected to the workforce, including making before and after school care programs more accessible and childcare more affordable.

Ms Williams said employers tell her it is “harder than ever to find new employees” but skilled migrants, who could fill key roles, are facing long delays in having their qualifications recognised and some are “returning home in frustration”.

“We need to cut the red tape and adopt a more streamlined approach to the recognition of overseas skills,” she said.

Ms Williams also urged the state government to consider further payroll tax relief for employers who take on apprentices and trainees, and to contribute more to training costs to upskill staff.

“These are initiatives that worked in the past. For South Australia it just has to be bigger and it has to be faster,” she said.

When Ms Williams was out of work in the late 1980s, she turned to the Enfield Community Youth Support Scheme, where she went to “brush up on my skills and hopefully get a job”.

When the community organisation faced losing its government funding, she rallied other unemployed locals to lobby politicians and secured a 12-month reprieve.

Ms Williams was offered a part-time project officer role with the revamped organisation and has worked her way up as it evolved, becoming general manager in 1997 and chief executive officer in 1998.

In 1999 she led a rebrand, to become Jobs Statewide, and later expanded the company into NSW and Victoria.

The organisation was the first SA provider to win a national employment services contract, under the federal Job Network (now Workforce Australia), and has been responsible for getting an estimated 100,000 South Australians into work.

“Having meaningful employment is key. It can change lives,” Ms Williams said.