The National Youth Employment Body (NYEB) was established by the Brotherhood of St Laurence in 2018 to enable a coherent, multi-sectoral response to youth unemployment. The aim of the NYEB is to facilitate collaborative efforts that enable young people to secure decent work while addressing the needs of industry for a diverse and adaptable workforce.

Young people in Australia want to work. Many young people are struggling to enter a changing labour market, and when they do, it is often into highly insecure, low skilled and low paid work. COVID-19 has only exacerbated these challenges and intensified the urgency for a targeted youth unemployment response.

The NYEB is building on international evidence and the Brotherhood’s research, policy and practice experience in developing and delivering innovative employment programs, including the development of the Transition to Work Community of Practice. This work focuses on place and facilitating collaboration to connect locally driven solutions to national policy impacts and systems change.

Driving impact

The NYEB is driving impact by supporting local communities to develop flexible, integrated and scalable employment solutions that benefit young people, employers, communities and adaptive policy making across Australia, by:

• Increasing local community capacity and productive collaboration between service providers, employers, training providers, young people, community organisations and all levels of government through Community Investment Committees, to develop, trial and scale sustainable employment opportunities for young people, that align with local employer and industry demand.
• Showcasing and scaling innovative local skills and employment solutions for young people with national and state level policy makers.
• Amplifying young people and employers’ leadership in local and national youth employment practice and policy development and debate.
• Facilitating national collaboration and co-design between and across different levels of government, industry, service and education experts through the NYEB Governance Groups, to drive a comprehensive government response to youth unemployment.
• Developing accessible resources, including tools, training, and governance and operations resources tailored to support effective practice in local contexts.
• Building the evidence base on local to national youth employment solutions by evaluating the key elements and impact of the NYEB model, and sharing key learnings to advance the development of a coherent national approach to youth employment in-place.