Topics: Jobs Guide.
E&OE…
Ian Henschke
Now do you remember years ago, when you were in your last year at school, there was this sort of book thing that came around – a small pamphlet thing – or rather largeish one as the years went on, and it would advise you where you could go if you wanted to become a vet, or if you wanted to enter the armed forces. It had all of the information in there – it was a sort of one-stop shop for careers. Well apparently that is no more, according to Amanda Rishworth, federal Shadow Assistant Education Minister. Good morning.
Amanda Rishworth
Good morning, Ian.
HENSCHKE
Yes, I can remember getting this when I was at school in the early 70s and we used to be given a sort of a pack, wasn’t it, from the federal government?
RISHWORTH
Yes, it was. It’s been going on for about 44 years now where the Job Guide, as it was known, used to be provided to Year 10 students upwards, because, of course, at Year 10 you’re starting to think about what subjects to choose, what pathway you might follow. So it was a really good resource as a student and I used it to work out how to become a psychologist and so it was used by, I think, a lot of students. Increasingly, as we see more and more different types of jobs, it was actually being used by career counsellors, as well at schools, to help guide young people along. After 44 years, unfortunately, the Abbott Government has decided that next year it will actually be cut. So for all of those students that will be wondering about what job to do – and over time obviously previous issues get more and more outdated – it’s going to be very hard for both students, parents and career counsellors to get the right advice about what to do and where to go to follow your dreams.
HENSCHKE
All right, well Senator Scott Ryan, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education, Christopher Pyne, is on the line as well. It seems appropriate that students have access to this resource, doesn’t it? They’ve obviously lost something here, have they? How do you explain the loss then, Senator Ryan?
Scott Ryan
Good morning Ian, and good morning Amanda. I just need to fix something that Amanda said then – there’s no cut here. In the Budget Estimates and the Budget we inherited, there wasn’t a single dollar for this next year that we inherited from Labor. This is one of a whole range of programmes in this area, which expired at the end of last year and Labor kicked along the can by only putting one year of money in the Budget for it. So, it actually expired – it wasn’t cut.
But more importantly, you mentioned that you used it when you were at school. One of the big changes of course since then is that we don’t have to go to a library to find things out anymore because the internet has provided so many more resources. And when you look at generations of children that have grown up with it and were much more engaged with it, there are a whole range of websites, a whole range of resources available on the internet provided by state governments, commercial operations, universities, professional associations, that actually give students access to this information. And importantly, the Commonwealth continues to maintain the Job Outlook website, which is based on ABS statistics and provides information about where we think jobs will be growing in the economy in coming years.
HENSCHKE
Okay, so what about someone who wants to take a hard copy, though? Can you go onto a website and print off a hard copy so you’ve got it and you can sit down with your mum and dad and read it, or do you have to all sit around a computer screen and look at it? Because often these discussions take place within a family, don’t they?
RYAN
Of course – they did when I was at school 25 years ago now. But also as we’re seeing in everything from newspapers to magazines – we shouldn’t assume that people have to have a physical bit of paper. People read the newspapers and magazines and watch the news on an iPad or a tablet or on a phone and under the previous government, it’s not like copies of this were being provided to every student in Australia. Amanda herself talked about how it was being used more by teachers, and there are so many resources on the internet.
HENSCHKE
All right, so the resource on the internet that has replaced the national Job Guide – is the national Job Guide on the internet or is there no national Job Guide anymore?
RYAN
No, the national Job Guide expires at the end of the year.
HENSCHKE
Okay, so have you put something on the internet that is the equivalent?
RYAN
No. This particular programme, as I mentioned, expires at the end of the year. The resources on the internet are there from universities, professional associations, commercial websites, state government departments and youth centres that refer to all of these particular job opportunities. But the Job Guide expires, as I remind you that Labor didn’t put any money aside for it either.
HENSCHKE
All right. Amanda Rishworth, that’s the response from the Minister for Education’s office. Are you happy with that?
RISHWORTH
No, I don’t think it’s good enough. Indeed, the MyFuture website, which was the transition from the Job Guide onto the internet, has also been cut from 2015. So there is no one-stop shop. Yes, young people can surf the internet and spend hours and hours looking at different websites. The benefit of whether it’s the Job Guide in hard copy or whether it’s on the internet, is a one-stop shop that you can go and get advice that’s been checked, that’s been verified. So I think this is just making it harder for students, harder for careers counsellors and harder for parents to get basic one-stop shop advice for where they want to go and so it’s one thing that Scott can say there was no money, but it was their Budget – they chose not to fund this after money had been found for 44 years to fund this.
HENSCHKE
All right, now back to you Senator Ryan, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education. If I was a Year 12 student now, where do you advise me to go and where do you advise me as a parent to go and sit down and actually have a look? Where do I go to discuss the future with my Year 11 or 12 student?
RYAN
Well there’s a whole range of websites, there’s a range of state government ones, there’s career centres provided by the states, even sites like seek.com.au and MyCareer actually have details that are like the Job Guide – there’s a whole range of these. But I’m not going to [inaudible] Amanda’s politics of grievance by just throwing slogans around. If Labor had cared so much, this programme wouldn’t have expired at the end of this year. They could have funded it for four years, they kicked the can down the road for one year so that it expired.
HENSCHKE
Can you just give us that name again? The name of the site is [inaudible]?
RYAN
I listed various websites. There’s the careers centres websites provided by the Western Australian and Victorian state governments, there’s Seek, there’s MyCareer, but I don’t want to particularly endorse one because some of them are commercial. But there are a whole range of those resources online.
HENSCHKE
Look, I can hear you’ve got a busy day today but I do appreciate your time this morning. Thank you very much for your time, Senator Scott Ryan, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education, and also Amanda Rishworth, federal Shadow Assistant Education Minister.
(Ends)