Youth want affirmative action, not simply words from the community and our political representatives at both state and federal level.
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That is the message ringing out loud and clear from students attending the two-day Tasmanian Youth Conference at the Door of Hope this week.
The conference, with the theme of "powering up for the future", looked purposefully at issues confronting our teenagers - from education right through to unemployment.
The conference is an initiative of the Youth Network of Tasmania and received funding from the state government to run the event in 2015 and again this year. The government also supports the youth network with annual funding of just over $240,000.
However, a criticism from students is that while they feel state representatives wanted to consult with youth around various educational and employment issues, they felt they were not being listened to. The state government announced a $25 million package in its recent budget that it says supports youth – from the payroll tax relief and incentives for employing youth apprentices, through to supporting Whitelion’s Work Ready Program and Beacon’s mentoring in schools.
The state government is also extending high schools to years 11 and 12 in a number of regional centres across Tasmania, which appears to keeping teenagers engaged in the education system for several more years.
But students felt that there was little support for performing well at school, and that there was little training for teachers who saw potential in students but were unable to respond in an appropriate way. They also felt that they needed more help with developing life skills to take them into adulthood, and that primary school literacy rates were in need of improving.
Students need guidance on everyday skills such as how to open a bank account, how to budget now and into the future, and how to develop skills in everyday tasks such as cooking and cleaning.
The Education Department said in a tweet on Thursday that “we are keen to hear the views of our young people”.
The hope is that the department is listening to those very concerns raised at the conference and has some pathway forward to help our leaders of the future take that all important step from being a meaningful adolescent to a meaningful, productive adult, armed with the educational background and life skills they will need going forward.