Rebuilding the Career Ladder

Rebuilding the Career Ladder is shifting the national conversation on youth employment to make sure employers are part of the solution.

Impact

Reached over 600,00 employers with key messages about youth employment
Partnered with over 30 of Australia’s biggest employers, including KPMG, Visy, Transdev, and Goodman Fielder
Published insights around labour market trends and economic mobility
Amplified young people’s experiences of work through [first-of-its-kind research]

The problem

Today’s young Australians are in danger of being the first generation in memory to have lower living standards than their parents’ generation. Reasons for this include wealth inequality and the cost of living. The challenge we focus on is the lack of access to good quality jobs.

We believe that everyone deserves fulfilling, secure and fairly paid work. But young people in Australia today face challenges establishing their career:

young people start out in lower skilled jobs and climb the career ladder more slowly
on average, it takes over 2.5 years for a young person to find full-time work after education
1 in 5 young people want more work, but can’t find it
employers provide less training than they used to, so young people are learning fewer skills.

The solution

The national conversation on youth employment focuses mostly on education, government action or getting young people ‘job-ready’. Getting employersto do things differently is almost never mentioned.

This is what Rebuilding the Career Ladder aims to change.

Rebuilding the Career Ladder is an umbrella program. It covers all the work SVA does to catalyse employers to create better quality career pathways for young people. In particular, it focuses on young people without a university degree.

We operate at a systems level across Australia, partnering with:

all levels of government
national employers, small business and employment bodies
advocacy and service delivery organisations
young people.

We conduct research, run events, change minds and spark conversations about what employers must do so young people aren’t left behind.

How we do it

Rebuilding the Career Ladder’s vision is for employers to create more high-quality jobs for young people at risk of exclusion. To work towards this vision, we:

We mobilise employers to create better jobs for young people. We raise awareness through events and media so that youth employment gets on the agenda of employers and policymakers.

We work alongside employers of all shapes and sizes through our Employer Innovation Lab program. The Lab empowers employers to improve things like recruitment and retention. It does this by lifting barriers facing young people from less privileged backgrounds.

We collect evidence from peers in the US and UK. We also run our own research in Australia. This data helps to define strategies that create better employment opportunities.

We directly involve young people and create opportunities for employers to hear their stories. This helps employers understand how to hire and support young workers.

Report: young people in Western Melbourne’s voices on work

Report: young people in Western Sydney’s voices on work

We seek out others doing good work in this space and support them where we can. We identify gaps in the system and create relationships between community organisations and employers.