By Lloyd Burr
Labour will give young people's dole payments directly to employers under the guise of “education subsidies” as part of its $251 million 'youth skills and employment package' they announced today.
Labour plans to have all teenagers learning or earning within three years if they were elected to Government.
They also plan to create 5000 new, free training places for 16 and 17 year-olds.
Labour leader Phil Goff says the package targets young people before they leave school and follows them into the workplace.
“We will match skills training within and outside of schools with real job opportunities. We will better inform, mentor and support young people so that they undertake and complete their training,” he says.
“Our package will convert dole payments into incentives for employers to take on additional apprentices.
“It is crazy to have high youth unemployment alongside a growing skills shortage crisis. It is not about make-work schemes. It is about creating relevant education and training opportunities and providing clear pathways to real jobs,” Mr Goff says.
The package includes:
- Converting dole payments into a $8700 subsidy for employers, creating 9000 additional apprenticeship places
- Creating 5000 new free training places for 16 and 17 year olds
- Creating 1000 extra group and shared apprenticeships
- Establishing a Youth Transitions Network that would create a future plan for every school leaver
The plan will cost $251 million over four years and Labour says it will be funded by its capital gains tax and “fairer tax plan”.
“It is not a case of whether we can afford to do this. We simply can’t afford not to,” Mr Goff says.
“We will reprioritise $80 million from existing schemes, with $58 million going to the apprenticeship subsidy instead of dole payments, giving a net total cost of $171 million over four years.
“We will spend carefully, but will spend where we need to. We need to do that to prevent an already serious problem from becoming a costly social and economic disaster.”
Mr Goff says the package addresses the “ticking time-bomb” of youth unemployment and “focuses on the 24,000 teenagers who are currently not working or in education or training”.
“These kids are our future but at the moment they are being left on the scrapheap. If we don’t do something now, we will all pay a far higher price. The New Zealand Institute estimates the cost of disengaged youth is $900 million a year.
“What we are proposing is not rocket science; it is common sense.
“Everyone knows that our youth unemployment rate is far too high – our young people represent more of our total unemployment numbers than in any other OECD country,” Mr Goff says.
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