Youth Summer Employment on 3AW 693 AM Radio Melbourne with Shane McInnes

By Sue Ellson

Topic: Youth Summer Employment

Date: 1 January 2024

Media Outlet: 3AW 693AM Melbourne https://www.3aw.com.au

Broadcaster / Interviewer: Shane McInnes

Producer: Bianca Johnston

Duration: 00:05:16

Time of show: 14:38

Audio Recording:

YouTube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPc61wJ_hso

Youth Summer Employment on 3AW Radio Melbourne with Shane McInnes and Sue Ellson

Transcript

I mentioned before youth unemployment was at 9.6% in November making it a good time to be a young person looking for work? Well let’s find out. Sue Ellson is a career expert. Sue good afternoon to you and Happy New Year.

Happy New Year to you too Shane.

Is it a good time for high school students and those who have just finished VCE to be getting a job?

I would absolutely agree, yes, indeed and because the more work experience you get before you get into any type of work in the future the better it is for you and a lot of the people who’ve just finished secondary school have had a lot of time working from home and haven’t had those opportunities to socialize so even better if it’s something people facing.

There’s often a divide when it comes to should my child as a teenager get a job or should they focus on their studies and complete VCE without any distraction. Is one better than the other or is it important for a bit of life balance for teenagers?

Well I guess it really depends on the student more than anything else. Yes. In terms of future employability it’s going to be much better if they have a mix of experience so that might mean study but also sports, hobbies, interests, clubs, work um it’s a number of different things. So when I was involved in a graduate recruitment program for a major bank, we actually assessed people’s applications on multiple factors right down to the fact do they play a team sport like football or tennis which is more of an individual sport. So yeah, there’s lots of factors in there but I guess from the young person’s perspective, having little bit of extra cash would be nice as well.

Are the jobs at McDonald’s and at Hungry Jacks or at Safeway and Coles are they still the most popular jobs amongst young people or are young people getting a little bit more picky?

Well I wouldn’t be able to say specifically because there’s no data on that.

Okay.

That I could actually quote. But what I can say has changed is the type of work that’s available.

Yep.

So in the past, it might have been just that type of retail job in your local area you might have seen a sign on a shop window or your friend got a job at McDonald’s and you got invited in or you filled out a Snaplication on Snapchat for a job at McDonald’s, but now you can do a lot of different things. So a lot of gig type jobs, and so the advantage that a lot of the digital natives have is they like editing videos and preparing social media posts and doing all that sort of thing so they could get their own tax file number and become independent contractors and be you know providing services to local businesses. They could be putting themselves on platforms like Weploy, Airtasker or Service Seeking and picking up gigs directly themselves and and setting themselves up for either an ongoing freelance business type of arrangement or you know just something that’s flexible that they can manage at a reasonable rate.

It’s a it’s a great idea and I didn’t even think of course so many of these jobs now could still be done from home so if you had a couple of hours on the weekend you could do some of these jobs from home.

Mmm.

As you talk about video or sound editing whatever it might be and then get on with your your homework and your studies.

Well if they can use technology and they charge per task completed if they can use the tech it might take them five minutes to complete it but they might charge you know $50 or $100 each time so they’re going to be able to manage to you know get a far better income than a low um wage worker. The only thing that I do get a little bit anxious about, is there’s a lot of videos on social media saying, yes if you sign up for this and do that and you multiply it by this number of people.

Yes.

It’s, it’s the old multi-level marketing that we knew back in the day. Um, but some of them get sucked into these things that they’re not real jobs.

Yep.

So that’s the only thing I’d be against.

Sue, just before I let you go, is it important for again, teenagers or high school graduates to get jobs actually in a workplace again talking retail, Myer whatever it might be to get the social skills of working in a workplace as well. So it’s all well and good to sit at home do the video editing or the sound editing or proof reading whatever it might be, but to get a job in an actual workplace where you are working with other people, you have a designated roster and the like?

I definitely gained value out of doing that. My first job was a babysitter and I didn’t get much exposure to people apart from young children and that wasn’t much help in the workforce, but I think a another issue that faces a lot of young people is climate change and advocacy and all that sort of thing so if they’re still getting out and about and doing some of that activity as well as this other work then that might be another way that they can still get exposure to actually dealing with people and learning communication skills. We’re all taught to read and write we’re not necessarily taught how to speak and listen. So you could definitely pick up those skills if you were people facing and you know turning up somewhere on a regular basis. You can also make great friends you could consider going to a regional area that’s really busy during the holidays and you know spending half the day in the job serving people and the other half doing the sights and sounds of the local area so there’s plenty of options around.

Sue it’s some great ideas in there appreciate your time today.

Thanks Shane.

Sue Ellson, Career Expert all right so how old

Social Share

YOUTH SUMMER EMPLOYMENT // Now is a great time for young people to secure work over summer in preparation for their future studies, career or business. Is face-to-face more valuable? What options are available? Shane McInnes and I discussed this topic on Nine‘s 3AW 693AM Radio Melbourne.

We discussed:

✅value of work experience and people facing work

✅ having a variety of interests outside of school

✅ team and individual sports

✅ gig platforms like Weploy, ServiceSeeking.com.au and Airtasker

✅ finding jobs via signs in windows, friends and referrals

✅ learning how to read and write at school but not speak and listen

✅ different ways to apply for roles including Snaplications for McDonald’s

✅ securing work in holiday locations where tourists are now to combine work and holiday

Enjoy the show online at https://sueellson.com/blog/youth-summer-employment-on-3aw-693-am-radio-melbourne-with-shane-mcinnes and thanks to Producer Bianca Johnston for reaching out!

3awmelbourne #youthemployment #sueellson