Our Model for Change
Since 2018, the NYEB has been trialing and refining a model for addressing systemic challenges to youth employment faced by communities across Australia: The National Youth Employment Model
This model provides an evidence-based guide for government in the design of employment services for young people.
The National Youth Employment Model differs from traditional approaches to service design because it harnesses local effort across sectors and industries, connects community to government and national policy, and provides a structure that fosters information sharing and the collaborative development of best practice and policy. It creates accountability and efficiency while keeping young people at the centre of its design.
The National Youth Employment Model is made up of three components:
- local to national governance,
- system learning and a
- mission-oriented practice approach.
When these core components work together, they create an employment system that is interconnected, efficient, relevant to place and adaptive over time.
Local to National Governance
The model's structure is designed to spread decision-making and involve different voices
The National Youth Employment Model’s governance structure connects local groups focused on the challenges and solutions in their communities with national experts and policy makers and vice versa.
Groups are linked through cross-membership and formal communication loops, creating mutual accountability and trust across diverse communities, organisations and sectors.
Involving young voices at every level
The NYEB’s governance structure is designed so that young people’s voices are embedded in every level of decision-making. For example:
- The NYEB Advisory Board includes membership of Youth Advisory Board members
- Youth Advisory Board and Advisory Board members sit on expert reference group
- Some Youth Advisory Board members sit on their local Community Investment Committees
- The Enabling Organisation facilitates feedback loops between the Boards, reference group and communities
System Learning
The model includes mechanisms that improve the employment ecosystem - and the ability of the people within it to respond to challenges - over time
The system learning function of the model supports learning and improvement of the model and employment system over time, so interventions are not just one-off programs but create positive feedback loops that improve the system more broadly. In practice, embedding system learning into the model means providing opportunities for members of the network to collaborate and share lessons and ideas, develop common approaches and build the capability of stakeholders across the system to respond to challenges in new and innovative ways.
When system learning is embedded in a system, it supports all its stakeholders to learn to better respond to challenges over time, reducing inefficiencies and using lessons to improve the system over time.
Case study:
Communities of Practice
The National Youth Employment Body (NYEB) has established two different communities of practice:
- A Community of Practice (CoP) bringing together partner organisation staff and Community Investment Committee Coordinators to share and reflect upon data and evidence about working collaboratively and to identify ways to adapt and continuously improve practice. It provides learning spaces and opportunities for Coordinators to reflect on their current practice in engaging and facilitating the Committee, driving action and building shared projects. It also encourages sharing and connection in between formal CoP meetings.
- A NYEB Community of Policy and Practice (NYEB CoPP) bringing together all NYEB members including members of CICs, national governance groups, philanthropic partners and the Enabling Organisation to share knowledge and best practice with the goal of developing resources and campaigns that can be shared widely. The CoPP is convened as a multi-day in-person event twice each year.
Case study:
Building Employer Capability
Across the NYEB, Community Investment Committees have worked with employers to change their practices so that they can hire young people without employment service support in the future.
- A Co-designed Pathway Model. The Eurobodalla Community Investment Committee has developed a model for making career pathways into the health sector more accessible for young people, and building health sector employers’ capability to hire and retain young people.
After 2 years of building and testing the pathway, the Committee has created two process maps outlining the employment pathway model. The steps are built from lessons learned from piloting the pathway.
This model can be applied to new sectors and adapted to different locations and contexts, creating a tool that can be used by employers and community organisations into the future.
- The Employer Toolkit. Committees across Australia have supported each other to create toolkits for employers wishing to tap into the young workforce but unsure where to start. In Darwin, the Gold Coast and Frankston-Mornington Peninsula, Committees have developed their own versions of a toolkit. These tools support employers to understand what they need to do to effectively hire and retain young people.
Mission-Oriented Practice
The model provides a blueprint for harnessing a community's assets towards a common goal
Across the services sector, many organisations have developed or adopted approaches to working directly with service participants and building partnerships in community. However, there is little practice guidance currently available for organisations and people to engage in effective, action-focused multi-sectoral collaboration.
Through almost a decade of learning with and from the NYEB’s Community Investment Committees, four practice elements have been identified as key to progressing effective place-based collaborative action across different community contexts. These elements make up the NYEB’s mission-oriented practice approach.
The core elements key to effective collaboration
