By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Job seekers at significant risk of long-term unemployment are being guided into work as part of a new mentors program.
Taskforce-Windana and consortium partner Afri-Aus Care have been helping 224 job seekers who have been out of work for a year or more.
Since October, nearly 50 of them have found an ongoing, secure job.
Windana employment services manager Herbson Singo says the secret of the Jobs Victoria Mentors program is a “relationship of trust” with job seekers.
“We start supporting them with resume writing, addressing gaps in their skills and providing mentorship.
“We support them with anything that’s required.”
The committed team of four mentors and Singo have a massive caseload but there had been plenty of success stories.
“The secret is that we work for the community. There’s a great connection with us and the community – we represent them, we understand, we share a common history.
“Most of my team are made of bi-cultural workers – people who have a huge connection with their community and speak different languages.
“It makes it easier for our team members to understand the barriers that the job seekers are going through.”
They’ve sourced jobs that are both white and blue collar – including highly-qualified jobs in IT and engineering.
Sometimes the team is “reverse marketing” to companies, cold-calling them on behalf of clients.
“It’s a hard gig but we work as a well-oiled team,” Singo said.
“It’s been good to collaborate with organisations like Afri-Aus Care who are connected with the community.”
The encouraging results were celebrated with State Employment Minister Vicki Ward at Afri-Aus Care in Springvale South on 28 February.
Other guests were Clarinda MP Meng Heang Tak, Mulgrave MP Eden Foster, Greater Dandenong mayor Lana Formoso and Kingston mayor Jenna Davey-Burns.
The program is funded by the State Government’s Jobs Victoria Mentors program until March 2025.
In Greater Dandenong, four providers are taking part in the program – Taskforce-Windana, Jesuit Social Services, Skill Invest and Maxima.
The Taskforce-Windana and Afri-Aus Care approach starkly differs to the recent damning findings of a federal inquiry into unemployment services provider WorkForce Australia.
Bruce MP Julian Hill who chaired the inquiry derided a system that made people “do silly things that don’t help them to get a job” and suspended payments due to trivial or inadvertent breaches.
Providers were “repeatedly trying to place jobseekers into unsuitable vacancies to chase outcomes payments”.
And employers “fled the system, dodging floods of inappropriate job applications”.
