LivedX 2022 series: Full policy paper - Financial security and employment

Overview

Children and Young People with Disability Australia (CYDA) is the national representative organisation for children and young people with disability aged 0 to 25 years. To understand the experiences and perspectives of young people with disability in employment, CYDA hosted a consultation with nine participants in September 2021. The consultation was co-designed by a working group of young disabled people.

What young people said

Young people participating in the consultation shared their perspectives and experiences, identifying significant barriers to meaningful employment, which for many started in high school. These included low expectations, poor attitudes by employers and employment service provider staff, and overall inaccessibility and inflexibility in the labour market. In addition to identifying barriers, young people shared ideas and solutions to improve employment outcomes for their cohort.

Recommendations

1. The Australian Government must protect the employment rights of young people
2. Governments at all levels should invest in the enablers of successful employment service outcomes
3. The Australian Government should ensure service contracts, funding models, and Key Performance Indicators of employment programs address systemic barriers to employment and incentivise supporting the needs of individual jobseekers
4. Governments at all levels should deliver consistent post-school transition supports for students with disability in line with priority area two^[1] of the Employ My Ability Disability Employment Strategy^[2]
5. Tertiary institutions should support students with disability to transition into employment post qualification

[1] Building employment skills, experience, and confidence of young people with disability: Ensuring young people with disability are supported to obtain work and careers of their choice.

[2] Commonwealth of Australia. (2021). Available at: Employ My Ability (dss.gov.au)

Full suite of resources for this topic

• Full policy paper including PDF and word files
• Auslan translation
• Short summary
• Easy read summary

[1] AIHW. (2022). People with disability in Australia. Available at: Engagement in Education (aihw.gov.au)

Other policy papers in this series

• LivedX 1: Tertiary education and learning
• LivedX 2: Financial security and employment
• LivedX 3: Healthcare settings for LGBTQIA+ youth with disability
• LivedX 4: Community spaces for LGBTQIA+ youth with disability
• LivedX 5: Inclusion and decision making