Opinion & Commentary
The training merry-go-round may be worse than nothing at all
Media reports on the weekend highlight the failure of the federal government’s $2 billion flagship training scheme, the Productivity Places Program (PPP). Industry groups and education providers say the scheme’s implementation was rushed, and is that it is not properly targeted at skill shortages.
The Rudd government is asking voters believe that it can and should create jobs to protect them against growing unemployment. But of the 94,000 jobseekers so far referred to the PPP, less than 6,000 got a job at the end of it.
This is a woeful result by any standard. As senior lecturer in adult and vocational education at Griffith University, Leesa Wheelahan, said in The Australian this week many of the PPP places ‘don’t lead to permanent jobs and they don’t lead to pathways to higher-level study either.’
This highlights an inconvenient truth for the Rudd government. Short of directly hiring more public servants, it is very difficult – impossible even – for governments to create real, sustainable jobs.
Yet the Rudd government is reluctant to change tack.
The government’s policy is to provide the unemployed with training programs which will, in theory, enable them to fill skilled job vacancies as they arise. Unfortunately, there is very little evidence that this approach actually works.
Rather than training being the means to an end – finding a job – for the government training has become the end itself.
There doesn’t appear to be any modelling to suggest that the most recent initiatives, such as the ‘Green Jobs’ program announced in July, will create real job opportunities either.
Shadow Minister for Employment Participation Andrew Southcott rightly argues that rigorous testing and evaluation should accompany policy initiatives of this magnitude. But clearly this is not being done. The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations is unable to say what they estimate the employment outcomes of taxpayer funded training programs such as the PPP will be.
Before we continue to waste billions, we need to be honest in our appraisal about which type of training and employment programs best lead to real employment outcomes and economic growth.
Churning jobseekers through training programs that don’t work can actually be worse than doing nothing at all. Participants in training programs often have worse employment outcomes than those who don’t take part. This is because they stop searching for a job when they commence training.
Research in Australia and the experience of similar programs overseas shows that getting jobseekers into a job – any job – as quickly as possible gives them the best long-term employment prospects. Part-time jobs often turn into full time jobs, low-paid or low-skilled jobs often lead to promotions.
This is the ‘work-first’ approach to employment policy that was employed throughout the Howard government’s term. The Rudd government would be better served by reverting to this type of policy.
With the jobless rate expected to rise to more than 7%, unemployment will clearly remain a major issue for the foreseeable future. It is understandable that the government want to do everything in their power to limit job losses.
But putting jobseekers on the training merry-go-round will backfire unless it leads them to real and sustainable employment. The inconvenient truth remains that the government can’t create jobs.
Jessica Brown is a Policy Analyst at The Centre for Independent Studies. Her report Breaking the Cycle of Family Joblessness was released by the CIS.
