Tech way forward for youth

THE jobs industry is changing at a rapid pace as increasingly flexible positions and emerging technologies affect how we work.

SYC chief executive Paul Edginton, Aija Rae and Cheryl Lush at Bizifyd space. Picture: Kelly Barnes

The jobs industry is changing at a rapid pace as increasingly flexible positions and emerging technologies affect the way people work.

But with unemployment trending upwards and the number of jobless youth skyrocketing, the not-for-profit Service to Youth Council wants more young people to train in jobs that suit their skills and that future industries need.

SYC chief executive Paul Edginton says the time is over for providing manufacturing and production traineeships.

There is now great need to move forward and create technology-related jobs to harness the skills and interests of the youngest generations leaving school and further education in the quest for work.

Edginton and his team are leading a national program to train young people with tech skills to create their own consultancy businesses.

“We find young people completely undervalue what they know about technology and they don’t think that way about the skills around it,” Edginton says.

“The social media that they live and breathe before they get out of bed — some people think that’s a dark art and they should really harness that.”

SYC, through its HYPA youth program, is this month launching its pilot Bizifyd, which will take 40 young people through a training program to help them set up their own information technology consulting business.

The program received $200,000 in federal government seed funding and is partnering with iiNet to take its pilot program until the end of the year. iiNet believes there are great opportunities to expand the program through its national network, with SYC operating in NSW, Victoria and South Australia.

The program will then introduce participants to a small to medium-sized company with limited time or knowledge to market itself online and which would generally struggle to afford the services of a market-leading consultant.

“In traditional training it’s around identifying what your weaknesses are and working on them, but I say that’s an excellent way of being average,” Edginton says.

“If you take what you’re good at and exploit it and get other people to do what you’re not good at, you could be fantastic. There’s stuff they do that older Australians aren’t doing, and they love it and can make money out of it.”

Edginton says the program would be ideal for youths who are disengaged from school and do not fit traditional trade pathways.

He says some youths struggle to fit into the senior high school model as well — they may not be academically oriented but they may be digitally literate.

Taking part in a program like Bizifyd means they can fit back into training that suits their interests, and they can be given a clear pathway to employment or learn how to set up their own small IT or web-based consultancy business.

“The trades is an old structure and proven pathway, and works for a lot of people, but technology isn’t structured and is not a recognised pathway ... we need it to be,” Edginton says.

“These guys can create their own mould if we give them the tools. The skills that these guys will need are the skills to be able to keep reinventing themselves without relying on an employer to tell them what the job looks like.”

A group of eight who started the pilot program in July is ready to graduate, and Edginton says the youths involved are already consulting with a small cluster of businesses on South Australia’s Fleurieu Peninsula.

Cheryl Lush, who runs the Lush Pastures B&B at Bald Hills, 70km south of Adelaide, had no idea about social media before teaming with Aija Rae, 24, when the program started.

“I thought hopefully it will save me doing the social media for the business because what we do is very hands on, there’s only two of us,” Lush says. “Being a dinosaur, we’ve got Facebook and the Twitter, but it takes mental time to talk about content.”

Lush, 65, was a teacher before her tree change move to set up the business with her army veteran husband Andy, 70. They have converted a Max Pritchard-designed property into three free-standing five-star lodges.

She sees merit in the program because it involves teaching and developing young people’s skills.

A lot of her bookings are taken through the internet, and her online presence needs a boost.

“When you’re not busy you can do it, but when you are, you don’t have the time,” Lush says.

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Wannabe stand-up bent on learning multimedia skills

CALL her a juggler, stand-up comedian, start-up enthusiast, business consultant, digital media expert, videographer or children’s entertainer. Aija Rae is a jack of all trades with a fist full of useful diplomas.

Rae is one of the pilot participants in SYC’s Bizifyd program, where she has teamed with various businesses and worked with several mentors to develop her business, management and IT skills.

“I’m interested to be delivering services for people and helping people realise what value it can be for them, as well as helping people take it over themselves,” Rae says.

The self-assured young woman, who speaks confidently and with authority, wants to be a full-time comedian and live in Canada’s comedy capital, Montreal. By diversifying her skills and setting up a small social and multimedia consultancy, she will be able to indulge her comedic delights for half of the year and run her company for the other half.

Anything web-based can be done on the road and she can keep up her business on the side, while living the stand-up dream.

“There’s an amazing array of talents involved in the program and there are people that need to value their skills a bit more,” she says.

As a Generation Y worker, Rae is going with the flow and knows that not all businesses succeed, and not everything she has done so far has worked. But she knows learning new skills and being pointed in the right direction helps.

“There’s nothing wrong with failure,” she says. “You get told don’t plan your career for your life, plan your life for your career.”