Youth Futures Project Partnership

Go Nagambie and Rural Inspire

Background

Rural Inspire is a national program aimed at inspiring young people across rural and remote Australia to chase and realise their dreams – often restricted by the opportunities and information they are provided within their local rural communities.

A key element of the Rural Inspire initiative is the “Rural Youth Ambassador Program” – a program designed to support rural and remote young people to have an impact on improving the life and education within their communities. It was recognised as best practice with the 2019 Commonwealth Governments review of Regional and Rural Education and is now operating in every state and territory of Australia.

With the high success and impact of the program at a state and national level, the Rural Inspire initiative has developed the Local Rural Youth Ambassador Program to work with local rural/remote communities in lifting the aspirations of young people within them – whether that be higher education, employment, or training. A number of these local initiatives are operating across rural communities in partnership with schools, community groups and industry.

The focus of the Local Rural Youth Ambassadors is to engage with young people within an identified rural community to explore their learning and after school aspirations and to encourage them to chase their dreams through the development of locally determined initiatives and programs.

Rural Inspire has gained resources from various levels of government to further develop the Local Rural Youth Ambassadors program across a number of rural and remote communities.

Go Nagambie Partnership

After discussions with representatives of Go Nagambie, and their desire to look at ways in which young people within the Nagambie community could see the employment opportunities that exist within it, a partnership between Rural Inspire and Go Nagambie has been established. Rural Inspire are working in collaboration with Go Nagambie to increase the awareness of young people of the career journey opportunities that exist within their community and facilitate the establishment of partnerships between these young people and local industries to inspire young people to undertake employment within their local community.

Focusing on engaging with young people, the partnership will explore the current aspirations of young people within the Nagambie area and what their perceptions of the employment opportunities that are available to them in their local community.

It will also partner with Go Nagambie and the work they are currently undertaking in relation to the employment opportunities within the various, and growing, industries that exist within the Nagambie.

Through this exciting partnership it is expected that the young people will be able to work in collaboration with the industries and organisations of Nagambie to develop ideas and initiatives that focus on catering for the growing employment requirements of the Nagambie community.

Phil Brown Rural Inspire Project Manager

Program Outline

Nagambie Rural Youth Ambassadors Rural Inspire

- Establishment of a small group of 20 young poeple - involvement of both school and non school young people

- Engagement with local schools

- Aseries of workshops and forums to explore youth aspirations within Nagambie and young peoples understanding of the employment and career opportunites that exist within Nagambie

- Exploration of youth aspirations of Nagambie young people

- Consideration and exploration of employment and career options within Nagambie

- Development of ideas to increase the aspiations of young people in partnership with industry

Industry Needs and Ideas Go Nagambie

- Engagement of a consultant to undertake a research into local industry employment needs

- Documentation of the outcomes of the research

- Link with industry and community organisation to gain interest and support for the future

- Sharing the outcomes of the research with the Nagambie Youth Aspirations

Nagambie Rural Youth Ambassadors

• Rural Inspire to facilitate a group of up to 20 Nagambie young people to form the Nagambie Youth Ambassadors

• Rural Inspire to utilise its education networks to engage them in identifying possible young people to be involved. The following focus include: o Primary focus on Euroa Secondary College, Seymour College and Assumption College o Secondary focus on the schools within Shepparton

• Rural Inspire to support the involvement of non-school based young people.

• The program commenced in August 2022 within the overall framework: o Exploration of current experiences and reflections that the Rural Youth Ambassadors have in relation to their aspirations and their understanding of the employment opportunities within Nagambie. o Exploring the positives and challenges within Nagambie, the Rural Youth Ambassadors will share their individual experiences and knowledge and begin to explore possible ideas for the future. o Development of ideas and activities that will assist with addressing the challenges identified o Meet with key people who have a great knowledge of the employment and career opportunities within Nagambie. o In partnership with Go Nagambie, establish initiatives that they, as a group, believe will increase the aspirations and knowledge of opportunities.

Program Content

The overall program would focus on the following key areas:

A Partnership for the Future

- The researchers present the industry research outcomes to the Nagambie Rural Youth Ambassadors

- Nagambie Rural Youth Ambassadors work with Go Nagambie to facilitate a workshop with key industry personnel and other key staekholders to explore the potential initiatives that could be developed into the future

- Go Nagambie explores ways in which the ideas can be implemented in partnership with the Nagambie Rural Youth Ambassadors

- Go Nagambie explores the development of an ongoing approach to engaging young people within their work.

• Aspirations and Dreams – what is my future, what is hindering me getting there, etc.

• Knowledge – what are the employment and career opportunities within Nagambie, what could be improved, and what ideas have we got to enhance our knowledge and support the realisation of our dreams

• Opportunities – what are the opportunities for us within Nagambie, how can local industry work with us in increasing our understanding of the opportunities that are within our community.

• Exploration of strategies and ideas that will increase young peoples opportunities within Nagambie and the potential career journeys possibilities.

Participants

• The program would focus on Year 10 and Year 11 students who reside in the Nagambie area

• The engagement of young people who are not involved in schooling will be included in the program.

Industry Jobs In-house TAFE Diploma or Higher i. Woods D (2022) Thinking big: a new mission statement for Australia, Grattan Institute accessed https://grattan.edu.au/news/think-big-a-new-mission-statement-for-australia/, p ii. Treasury (2022) Jobs and Skills Summit September 2022 – Outcomes, Australian Government accessed through https://treasury.gov.au/sites/default/files/inline-files/Jobs-and-SkillsSummit-Out comes-Document.pdf iii. Regional Australia Institute (2021) Building the Good Life: Meeting the demand for regional housing, RAI Discussion Paper. iv. Regional Australia Institute (2022) Job Vacancy report accessed https://www.regionalaustralia.org.au/Web/Shared_Content/Smart-Suite/Smart-Library/Public/Smart-Library-Search. aspx?hkey=a1cd6985-7c60-47fe-8eaa-51963aa2bfac v. Woods D (2022) Thinking big: a new mission statement for Australia, Grattan Institute accessed https://grattan.edu.au/news/think-big-a-new-mission-statement-for-australia/ vi. Mann A, Denis V Schleicher A, Ekhtiari H, Forsyth,T, Liu E and Chambers, N (2022) Dream Jobs ?: Teenages’ Career Aspirations and the Future of Work, OECD, www.oecd.org.au vii. Youth Pathway Action Plan Taskforce (2001) Footprints to the Future, Australian Government. viii. Bond, S & Keys, D 2020, Finding that spark: what works to achieve effective employment services for young people?, Brotherhood of St Laurence, Fitzroy, Vic. ix. Regional Australia Institute (2019) Submission to the Senate Select Committee Inquiry into the jobs for the future in regional Australia ac https://www.regionalaustralia.org.au/Web/ Shared_Content/Smart-Suite/Smart-Library/Public/Smart-Library-Search.aspx?hkey=a1cd69 85-7c60-47fe-8eaa-51963aa2bfac cess x. ABS Census Data 2016: Strathbogie Shire and Victorian labour market profile access from https://profile.id.com.au/australia/occupations?WebID=110