Understanding Good Cycles’s Youth Employment Program participants’ experiences and perspectives on employment: Final Report

For years, Young People have experienced higher unemployment and face greater difficulty finding jobs compared to the rest of the workforce, leading to delays in starting careers and finding suitable jobs. They often face insecure work and are losing faith that they will be able to achieve, or create for themselves, secure career paths. Specific groups of young people are said to be at particular risk of experiencing adverse employment outcomes and disengaging from work, namely: Young People from low-income backgrounds who are not well-matched with their jobs, Young People with long-term health issues, Young People who are long-term unemployed, and Young People not in education, training or work.

Responding to the need for more nuanced qualitative insights about these cohorts’ experience of the labour market system, the report sets out the findings from a Good Cycles-led research project supported by the Melbourne Social Equity Institute's Community Fellows Program which explored the labour market experiences of a representative cohort of young people engaged in Good Cycles’ Youth Employment Program; the individual, structural and systemic factors identified as shaping their decisions around employment pathways and engaging in work. The research also aimed to gather their perspectives on the likely challenges and opportunities of the future of work, drawing from their time working at Good Cycles.

Staff from Good Cycles’ YEP shared personal experiences into how their needs and values influence their job choices, and offered some of their views on the challenges and opportunities in the future of work for Young People.

This research findings covers three key thematic areas:

1. Drivers behind youth unemployment: Understanding underemployment and weak participation in the labour market experienced by marginalised Young People.
   Engaging our youth: The needs and reasons for engaging in work among Young People working at Good Cycles.
2. The future of work: Creating ‘green’ inclusive and sustainable jobs for Young People

The research highlights the importance of quality jobs and supportive workplaces for marginalised young people’s engagement with employment, and of promoting approaches where the structure of opportunity is seen as integral to supporting young people’s sustainable transitions to work, and transitions within and across sectors.