BACKING YOUNG AUSTRALIANS INVESTING IN THE NEXT GENERATION Foundation for Young Australians 2016 Election Platform The world is changing at an unprecedented pace. Australia s population is rapidly growing and ageing, our economy is restructuring, technology is transforming work, inequality is increasing, and our eco-systems are stretched. The institutions we have in place for dealing with these issues need reform. These are the challenges future generations of young people will inherit. But right now, we are not preparing our young people to thrive. For our nation to overcome present and future challenges, we must invest in the next generation. By backing young Australians, we can secure Australia s future. This is our mission at FYA. We want to ensure Australia is investing in all young people, from a diversity of backgrounds, utilising their time, talent and ideas in the creation of new and better ways of doing things. Our young people will need to be enterprising and entrepreneurial, to make Australia technology savvy, innovative, competitive, and environmentally sustainable. They will need to link in to new markets, new people and new opportunities across the world. They will need to understand national and global trends and know how to respond and take advantage of them. They will also need to build a strong social and civic culture that strengthens our quality of life and ensures our resources are distributed to create equitable, generous, diverse, creative communities. To embrace these challenges and maximise opportunities we need a national plan, which would see all young people gaining enterprise skills at school, being supported to develop solutions to societal issues through social innovation and entrepreneurship, and participating in local social and economic development in every corner of Australia. This generation of young people will [need to] promote innovation and entrepreneurialism and grow our economy to maintain our standard of living (Phillip Lowe, Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, 2014) We call on the nation s leaders to commit to investing in Australia s young people, placing them at the centre of economic policy and ensuring the next generation is prepared to drive social and economic progress in Australia for decades to come. 1
WORK IS CHANGING Growth in jobs has been in high skilled/ touch occupations Community & Personal Services Professionals Managers Sales 0% 6% High skill 54% High touch 87% Lower skill -35% -37% -19% -19% Machinery Operators Technicians & Trades Admin Labourers and 70% of young people will enter the labour market in jobs that will be lost or automated Source: Foundation for Young Australians (2015) New Work Order: Ensuring young people have skills and experience for jobs of the future, not the past. FYA. Melbourne. Source: Foundation for Young Australians (2015) New Work Order: Ensuring young people have skills and experience for jobs of the future, not the past. FYA. Melbourne. EMPLOYERS ARE ALREADY DEMANDING HIGHER SKILLS The demand for enterprise skills is on the rise YOUNG PEOPLE ARE NOT BEING EQUIPPED WITH THESE SKILLS Among Australia s 15 year-olds: Source: Foundation for Young Australians (2016) The New Basics: Big data reveals the skills young people need for the New Work Order. FYA. Melbourne. Source: Foundation for Young Australians (2016) The New Basics: Big data reveals the skills young people need for the New Work Order. FYA. Melbourne. 2
YOUNG PEOPLE NEED TO BE MORE SKILLED SO THEY CAN TAKE UP THE OPPORTUNITIES OF THE NEW WORK ORDER. SOME NEED TO BE ENTREPRENEURIAL TO BECOME JOB CREATORS, NOT JUST JOBS SEEKERS. Some young people are already falling behind Year 12 completion rates: 80 60 40 20 0 83 Major cities 65 65 60 Inner regional Outer regional Remote and very remote In 2015, 20 to 24 year olds that lived outside of major cities were at least 18% less likely to have completed year 12 or an equivalent qualification than those living in major cities. Source: ABS 6227.0 Education and Work Australia, May 2015. Note: Completion rates finishing year 12 or attaining an equivalent qualification (Cert III and above). AUSTRALIA NEEDS TO: Equip young people with the skills needed for the New Work Order Provide opportunities and back young people s ideas and encourage enterprise Support young people in regional areas to engage and participate THE COMMITMENTS WE ARE SEEKING FYA have identified three areas that the government can begin its investment in ensuring all young people have the skills, opportunities and support to reach their full potential and take Australia forward. A National Enterprise Skills Strategy to embed enterprise education in Australian schools and build young people s skills for the New Work Order Development of a coordinated national ecosystem for youth innovation to back young entrepreneurs and innovators to develop and scale new solutions to the world s biggest social and economic challenges Creation of regional hubs for youth-led economic development to provide pathways for young people in regional Australia to develop local enterprises with the support of peer networks, shared infrastructure, training and local mentors in a cooperative environment 3
1. FYA is calling for a commitment from all parties to deliver a National Enterprise Skills Strategy to embed enterprise education in our schools and prepare young people for the future BUILDING YOUNG PEOPLE S SKILLS FOR THE NEW WORK ORDER Technology, global competition, and changing demography are reshaping our economy and work. Our 2015 report New Work Order: Ensuring young Australians have skills and experiences for the jobs of the future not, the past, found that a 15-yearold today will enter a world of work that is being transformed by 3 economic forces: globalisation; automation and collaboration. For Australia to remain competitive in an increasingly globalised workforce, our young people must be equipped to drive our economy forward. To do so, they will need to learn transferable enterprising skills now to prepare them for the economy of the future, so they can become job creators, not just job seekers, and navigate more complex careers. Our 2016 report The New Basics: Big data reveals the skills young people need for the New Work Order, found employers are already shifting toward an increased focus on these transferable skills. Demand for enterprise skills has increased dramatically, with employers in Australia s growth sectors already placing a higher value on such skills, and consequently prepared to pay a premium for job seekers who have them. Enterprise Education in Action $20 Boss FYA has partnered with NAB to develop and deliver a demonstration program for how we can equip students with enterprise skills in Australian High Schools. $20 Boss is a program designed for secondary school students, where participants are given $20, like a loan, to set up and run a small business over the course of a term while learning the skills and frameworks needed for success. The program was delivered to 6,500 students across Australia in 2015, with teachers accessing the digital teacher toolkits to support them in program delivery. Ninety percent of students reported that the program was educational, and teachers reported an increase in the students confidence, communication and business literacy. In 2016, FYA is continuing with the demonstration program, with plans to develop a new digital module focused on integrating digital skills development into the program design. Despite staying in education longer young people are not developing the enterprise skills increasingly demanded for work. Around one third of 15 year old Australian students have low proficiency in financial literacy and problem solving, and one in three have poor digital literacy. A national enterprise skills strategy would: Begin early in primary school and build consistently, year on year, throughout high school Be provided in ways that young people want to learn: through experience, immersion and with peers Provide accurate information and exposure about where future jobs will exist and the skills needed to craft and navigate multiple careers Engage students, schools, industry and parents in co-designing opportunities in and outside the classroom. 4
2. FYA is calling for a commitment from all parties to create a coordinated national ecosystem that enables young people to develop and scale innovative solutions to the world s biggest social and economic challenges CREATING A NATIONAL ECOSYSTEM TO BACK YOUNG SOCIAL INNOVATORS & ENTREPRENEURS Federal and State Governments across the country right now are calling for an innovation-driven economy however, the latest data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor shows Australian young people are behind in terms of taking up entrepreneurship. We need to ensure more young Australians have the capacity to become job creators, not just job seekers. As well as have the support to develop solutions to societal issues through social innovation and entrepreneurship. Therefore we need an ecosystem which includes people of a broad range of ages, genders, cultural, geographic and socioeconomic backgrounds, including Aboriginal people, people who are culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD), and people with a disability. Right now Australia lacks a national approach to fostering inclusive youth entrepreneurship and innovation. Young entrepreneurs face barriers such as access to financial resources, networks, and specific business knowledge, as well as human resources. There is also a lack of purposeful design to boost inclusivity and diversity in Australia s startup sector. A coordinated national ecosystem to foster youth-led social innovation and entrepreneurship would: Connect existing training and accelerator programs Provide access to mentors and networks of peer-support; and Generate investment for young people to access finance via a central fund, to develop and commercialise their ideas for social and business entrepreneurship. Fostering youth lead innovation and entrepreneurship Young Social Pioneers is FYA s incubator program to back our nation s emerging social innovators, entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs and changemakers aged 18-29 years. The program supports a range of innovative and important ventures. Jillian Kenny Jillian Kenny founded her project Machinam, with fellow engineers Claire Bennett and Felicity Furey, in a bid to make maths more engaging and relevant, especially for young women. The app-based product is an alternative to traditional high school maths textbooks. It tackles the age old question, why do we need to learn this? by framing maths problems in a way that allows students to connect what they are learning in class to their own life and future careers. Since participating FYA s Young Social Pioneers program Jillian and her team have secured seed funding, begun selling their product to schools and are continuing to expand their team. Ethan Butson Ethan Butson is a 19 year old entrepreneur from Wollongong. He created Vision Master, which is augmented reality technology for people with a vision impairment. He is in the process of testing the device with vision impaired people to gather formal feedback with a view to take it to market in the near future. He says his experience in the Young Social Pioneers program helped him better develop his communication skills and business acumen. He also now has a network of like-minded young people and mentors to share and workshop ideas with. 5
3. FYA is calling for a commitment from all parties to trialling regional hubs to support youth-led economic development within regional communities REGIONAL HUBS TO SUPPORT YOUTH-LED ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT The rapid changes to the global economy are having, and will continue to have, different impacts in different locations. The effects of the current and future changes are particularly pointed in regional areas. To overcome these challenges and develop their economies, regional Australia will need to back their young people as a key resource. In Australia, there are significant opportunities to foster collaborative business and social entrepreneurship through regional hubs bringing young people together to benefit their local communities. The new Incubator Support Programme and other initiatives through Regional Development Australia provide opportunities to create spaces and programs that allow young social innovators and entrepreneurs to work together to create new products, services, income and jobs. By implementing a cooperative model, we can improve the chances of success across various enterprises and create community connectedness at the same time. A national trial of regional youth enterprise hubs could be used to test best practice models for youth-led enterprise cooperatives housed in existing regional infrastructure. The regional hub models should include: Shared legal structure Formalised peer-to-peer support network Regional Hub Backbone organisation to support & incubate Shared admin system to reduce start-up costs A network of regional hubs would go further, enabling a platform to connect youth-led economic development across regional Australia, sharing information, ideas and digital infrastructure to support youth entrepreneurship as the key to creating resilient regional towns. Local social & economic development in action Enspiral New Zealand s Enspiral model provides a great example of the economic and social impacts of cooperative entrepreneurship. The Enspiral social enterprise network based in Wellington has created a network of social entrepreneurs who not only share co-working spaces but also resources, skills, learnings, funding and ideas. Across the network, Enspiral funds are pooled to cover administrative costs and to fund a foundation that supports entrepreneurs who otherwise would not be able to participate. In just five years Enspiral has supported and connected: 172 current contributors; 60 working members; 13 spin off enterprises. The collective enterprises have achieved $1.6 million in turnover, including 25% internal sales within the network and all members now dedicate 5% of gross revenue to encouraging Social Enterprise. 6
FYA is Australia s only national for-purpose organisation dedicated to backing the next generation of young people who are going to rethink the world and create a better future. We work with young people from all over Australia aged 12-29 years, to prepare them for the future of work and social change. We believe young people are not a problem to be helped or solved. They are ambitious, creative and capable of rethinking the world and solving tomorrow s problems today. And they can do it all with a social conscience that will let them build a better world in the process. We work with partners across industry, government, education and the community sector to build young people s skills for the new work order, to back and accelerate their ideas, and to transform the way Australia views and works with young people so they can change the institutions, policies and practices that will shape our future. Copyright and disclaimer: Copyright Foundation for Young Australians, 2016. All rights reserved. The materials presented in this report are for information purposes only. The information is provided solely on the basis that readers will be responsible for making their own assessments of the matters discussed. Readers are advised to verify all relevant representations, statements and information and to obtain independent advice before acting on any information contained in or in connection with this report. While every effort has been made to ensure that the information is accurate, the Foundation for Young Australians will not accept any liability for any loss or damages that may be incurred by any person acting in reliance upon the information. Find out more at 7