Youth Parliament: Pushing for better outcomes for Shepparton young people

By Caitlyn Grant

Jun 6, 2022

Work-ready: Brea Dorsett, Abbey Monk and Tom Saxton are among a team of six heading to Youth Parliament. Photo by Rodney Braithwaite

Northern Victoria Youth Parliament Team is putting forward a bill in Youth Parliament this month to help young people leave school work-ready.

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Made up of six members, four from the Greater Shepparton region, one from Alexandra and another from Echuca, the team is gearing up to pose its Mandatory Youth Work Readiness Program in Victoria bill to Parliament in late June.

The bill essentially contains making a work readiness program mandatory in the Victorian education curriculum, with an aim to equip young people leaving school with necessary work and life skills.

“We’re trying to push it through Parliament to get the assistance we need to close the gap between industry and Victorian youth, so that our students are leaving school work-ready,” Youth Parliament member Brea Dorsett said.

“For me, I had to really work hard once I finished school to develop these soft skills: my self-esteem and my confidence, I had to teach myself how to pay taxes and just a million things.”

Miss Dorsett was one of four interns who researched and created Goulburn Murray Local Learning and Employment’s How Work Works report, along with Youth Parliament members Tom Saxton and Abby Monk.

The bill was inspired by their findings from the report, which showed despite effects of COVID-19, entry-level work was available in the Shepparton region but young people were struggling to find the opportunities and build skills through school.

The suggested framework within the bill would allow education to be tailored to each Victorian region’s own economy and needs to ensure relevancy.

Miss Dorsett said it would give students opportunities to network with local businesses, civic education and build confidence and communication skills.

“When we did the report, the findings were so powerful ... we didn’t want it to just stop there, we wanted to create an action plan,” she said.

Bills that are passed by the Youth Parliament and given the assent of the Youth Governor are then passed on to the Victorian Government for consideration.

In 35 years, more than 30 pieces of legislation have originated from the Youth Parliament program, which is run by YMCA Youth Services.

The team will present and debate the bill from June 27 to June 30.