ACOSS welcomes the setting up of 14 extra Employment Facilitators to work with 25 Local Jobs and Skills Taskforces with an extra $62.8million, announced by the Federal Government today.

ACOSS CEO Dr Cassandra Goldie said:

“Funding 25 Local Jobs and Skills Taskforces across regional areas is an excellent start to getting local employment solutions. ACOSS has called for exactly this kind of approach and we would like to see this develop into a permanent national network of Local Employment and Skills Partnerships, supported and resourced by a national advisory body that draws expertise from employers, community organisations, unions, employment and training providers, and people with lived experience of unemployment.”

ACOSS called for the setting up of local employment and skills partnerships in early August to improve the responsiveness of employment and training programs to the needs of people who are unemployed and employers in different regions across the country. See the full briefing paper here .

“With 1.3 million people on unemployment payments, half of them unemployed for over a year, those programs will have to be scaled up dramatically over the next few years. We need to ensure those big national programs respond to local needs.

The proposed Local Taskforces announced by Employment Minister Cash today, can bring together employers, educators, employment services and people who are unemployed to work out practical plans to link people, skills and job opportunities.”