Young people at the top end of the Coast are being deprived of Commonwealth scholarships for vocational training that have been earmarked solely for their counterparts in Gosford.
Last week the Department of Education, Skills and Employment announced that young people choosing vocational education and training pathways could apply for a grant up to $13,000 to cover costs.
The Commonwealth Scholarships Program for Young Australians is “open for those living in 10 selected regions, with up to $5,000 on offer per year for two years, along with an additional $3,000 if they also complete a 20-day paid internship,” it said.
Those 10 selected regions include Gosford, but neglect to include its Central Coast Council family member, the former Wyong shire.
The scholarships are awarded to those attending Industry Training Hubs, which are also situated in those 10 designated areas, including Gosford.
The NSW Business Chamber Limited was awarded the contract to run the Gosford Hub last July.
$50.6M of Federal funds has been invested in the Hubs.
“It makes no sense to exclude Dobell from this program, when the Central Coast is one region,” said Federal Member for Dobell Emma McBride.
“Young workers living across the entire Coast could use a scholarship like this to up-skill and find more secure work.
“The government needs to explain why they’ve excluded Dobell from the program, and why it shouldn’t be included in the future,” she said.
The Federal Government points to bureaucratic reasons as to why the young people at the top end are being excluded from applying for the scholarships.
The Department of Education, Skills and Employment relied on ABS statistics taken from the 2016 census that highlighted high rates of youth unemployment.
Gosford and the former Wyong Shire are treated as two separate ABS administrative entities, despite their coupling under one Central Coast Council.
A Department of Education, Skills and Employment spokesperson said that the approach to determine the geographic boundary for Gosford was the same as for the other nine locations, based on having a broadly similar number of eligible young people in each region.
“The program’s boundaries were selected based on the latest statistical information available from the ABS and to ensure equity between different regions across the program, but no region of Australia is overlooked when it comes to opportunities to train up.
“The youth of the Central Coast, like youth across the whole of Australia, have access to free or low fee training under the $2B JobTrainer Fund.
This includes 100,000 placements for New South Wales young people, with 110 JobTrainer courses available within 25 kilometres of Wyong.”
Youth unemployment at the top end of the Central Coast, including suburbs around San Remo, Doyalson and Colongra has reported rates as high as 32 percent in the last census, compared to the Central Coast average of 13.7 percent.
Y NSW, Susannah Le Bron and Central Coast Program Coordinator, Virginia Walshaw ran a careers expo for 300 young people in the region last year.
“We are committed to pushing back against staggering youth employment and disengaged rates to support the long term economic, social and mental wellbeing of the Central Coast,” she said.
Nicola Riches