A new education blueprint will target Brimbank’s high unemployment rate, which is almost twice the state average.
Brimbank council’s draft community learning strategy 2014-17 reveals the municipality’s jobless rate is 9 per cent, against the state average of 5.7.
LeadWest chief executive Craig Rowley said that with 11.6 per cent of Sunshine residents unemployed at the end of September, creating jobs was vital.
“For this reason we are very pleased to see Sunshine designated in Plan Melbourne [the state government’s 40-year growth strategy] as a national employment cluster,’’ he said.
‘‘This new status should lead to more jobs in Brimbank.
“We’d like to see Brimbank residents take up the new jobs created locally and we see the city’s community learning strategy playing a role in making that happen.’’
The council will join more than 70 organisations, including Spectrum Migrant Resource Centre, LeadWest, VISY Cares Hub and Good Shepherd Youth and Family Services, in attempting to place people in work. Mr Rowley said better education could come in many forms. “Sometimes it will be a direct effect, for example where a resident is encouraged to learn a skill that makes them job-ready or ready for a higher-skill, higher-paid job,” he said.
“Sometimes it will be an indirect effect, for example where a parent is encouraged into some form of training and finds a love of learning which, in turn, inspires their children. It’s a solid strategy, one that supports learning at all life’s phases, from early years to later life.”
The strategy revealed a culture of ‘‘under-education’’ in Brimbank, with significant barriers to learning.
It found adults were almost more than twice as likely not to have attended formal schooling compared to other adults statewide. Year 9 was the highest level of schooling for 20 per cent of the population aged over 15.
“There are specific barriers to learning faced by some groups in Brimbank . . . one in five residents is affected by a form of disability,” the report found.
Submissions to the plan close January 24.
