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Full-time work elusive
Young Australians taking longer than previous generations to find full-time jobs.
By AAP and Loren Smith
The‘ quarter-life crisis’ is becoming more common as young people struggle to find full-time work.
A new report has revealed only half of Australia’ s 25-yearolds are in full-time work, despite 60 per cent of them having postschool qualifications. This represents a 7 per cent drop in their rate of full-time employment since 2006.
The Foundation for Young Australians has also found it is taking young people longer than their parents to find full-time jobs.
In 1986, it took 12 months to transition from school to work, but today, that figure is more than four-and-a-half years.
Even allowing for gap years and those who continue their studies, the figure only drops to two-and-a-half years.
“ At 25, young people are increasingly reporting they feel like they can’ t get anywhere and are struggling to navigate a career path in a rapidly changing world of work,” the foundation’ s report says.
“ This has been termed by some as the quarter-life crisis, with reported prevalence increasing.”
Another survey previously found that of those who are employed – even part-time – many feel their skills are underutilised.
The Mitchell Institute’ s director Megan O’ Connell says unless schools focus on student capabilities like creativity, critical thinking and communications skills, which are essential for jobs, Australia risks falling behind.
“ We can’ t keep focusing on last century’ s education milestones – it is not enough anymore to get good high school grades or even go on to further study or training,” O’ Connell says.
The FYA report suggests there are ways a young person can speed up their transition to work. A course teaching problemsolving, teamwork and communications skills can put them 17 months ahead, and 2000 hours of work in a relevant job can speed up the transition by five months, while 5000 hours can put them a year ahead.
In addition, a positive mindset can give young people a twomonth head start. ■
Transgender care strategy
New Australian guidelines released for the treatment and care of trans and gender diverse youth.
Transgender people constitute about 1.2 per cent of the population, but until recently they have been largely excluded from society. In a 2015 speech, former human rights commissioner Tim Wilson said that, of all LGBTQI people,“ the lingering and most extensive discrimination is faced by transgender Australians”. Only a year and a half ago, South Australia became the first state to remove the surgery requirement for a change of sex on birth certificates, while Queensland made this change more recently.
With the embrace of transgender people’ s visibility – and their resultant increased demand for medical services – come new challenges. New national guidelines hope to address these.
A position statement summary published in the Medical Journal of Australia outlines the guidelines, which provide language advice as part of an overall strategy for the treatment and care of transgender youth.
They contain four key recommendations: 1. Child-driven, individualised care 2. Use of given name and pronoun of the child’ s choice
4. Consideration of sociocultural factors – some cultural beliefs are at odds with transgender concepts
5. Consideration of legal requirements with regards to physical treatments like hormone therapy. The guidelines also encompass specific pre- and post-puberty recommendations.
While international guidelines have existed for years, these are particular to Australia, which is unique due to its“ cultural and linguistic diversity, and vast geographical distances creating barriers to treatment access for people living in rural and regional locations,” Associate Professor Michelle Telfer said.
As lead author of the summary, Telfer, the director of the Royal Children’ s Hospital Gender Service in Melbourne and acting president of the Australian and New Zealand Professional Association for Transgender Health, noted that trans and gender diverse youth often experience gender dysphoria: anxiety caused by the gulf between a person’ s biological sex and their gender identity. A recent study found that almost half had attempted suicide. Hence, the need for guidelines for their treatment and care. ■
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