Workskill Australia to help our kids find jobs

Workskill Australia has been named as a provider to help young unemployed people and school-leavers find jobs.

Workskill Australia has been named as a provider to help young unemployed people and school-leavers find jobs as part of the federal government’s Transition to Work program.

Workskill will run programs in Adelaide’s north, south and northwest country, Sydney’s southwest and the Hunter Valley in NSW.

Chief executive Nicole Dwyer says Adelaide and Sydney face economic and social challenges. “Confidence and feelings of self-worth can take a battering when you’re struggling to find a job,” she says. “By assisting young people to become work ready or find their way back to education, we can help break the vicious unemployment cycle and identify opportunities for youth to connect with the workforce.”

Video competition

Recruitment specialist Randstad is running a video competition via social media to showcase the talents of young people, demonstrating why they need to look beyond the traditional curriculum vitae.

The Shaping Young Futures Video competition is calling for people to post a video showing how they have used their unique talents to build a career.

The best entry will receive a round-the-world trip involving international business meetings with youth ambassadors and senior business leaders, a day with the Formula One Williams Martini racing team in England, a mentoring session with a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, spending money, career advice and training in key skills.

The top five finalists, including a people’s choice winner, will receive a one-month paid internship with L’Oreal Australia, Marketo, National Australia Bank, Seek or Virgin Australia. The competition closes on Friday. More: randstad.com.au/shapingyoungfutures.

Charity auction

Ten high-profile business leaders are auctioning their time in a mentor program to raise money for the charity ChildFund Australia. MentorMe is raising funds to support communities in Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. Online bidders will be able to choose mentors from different industries, including Coca-Cola South Pacific business unit president Roberto Mercade, Leo Burnett non-executive chairman Todd Sampson, Carnival Australia executive chairwoman Ann Sherry, and Allens former chief executive partner Michael Rose.

Bidding closes at 5pm on Wednesday. Details at: mentormeauction.org.au.

Gender parity

More than 3000 businesses have joined the #PledgeforParity campaign to promote equal pay and rights for women at work, as the estimate for eliminating pay disparity blows out to 2133.

With the gender pay gap just under 18 per cent, chief executives are pledging to offer better conditions for women, including flexible hours and part-time work.

Financial services company director Nicholas Heard employs nine people; eight are women. His office represents the changing workforce. Some staff work from home, most work part time, and others start early and finish by 3pm for the school run.

“They are more organised, more thorough, and in financial planning they’re really beneficial to the business,” Heard says. “If they work from home we’re set up for all of them with technology to dial in and they can see everything at home that they would on their work computer.”

A decade ago Heard worked for an international financial organisation and says colleagues started early and left late. He says workplace culture has changed and he does not mind that his office is almost empty each afternoon.