Teenage tradies from Adelaide's north optimistic about job prospects despite rising unemployment
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Students from Adelaide's northern suburbs who have learnt trade skills while renovating public housing are optimistic about their futures despite the region's high unemployment.
A group of 50 Salisbury High students started working on an Elizabeth East house in February as part of the Doorways 2 Construction program to gain experience and understanding of the building industry, which has led to offers of apprenticeships and gaining confidence to study further.
Student Jed Banwell said the house was a mess when the group arrived.
"The house was really rusted and eaten out by a lot of white ants," he said.
"It looks like a completely different new house now," he said.
Jed was offered an apprenticeship during a work placement but knocked it back because he still had not decided whether he would go to university.
He recommends the program to other students because "it's the only one that builds on an actual site".
Fellow classmate Ethan Robinson, 16, from Paralowie, has accepted an offer to start a carpentry apprenticeship next year with a Gawler-based business after completing the first year of the Doorways program.
"My Pop was a carpenter and he passed away this year," Ethan said.
"He was a really good carpenter and I think he'd be really proud of me that I've gotten this far with an apprenticeship."
Unemployment rates expected to rise with Holden's closure
Job prospects for young school leavers in Adelaide's northern suburbs are among the toughest in the country.
The June quarter unemployment rate in Elizabeth East was 14.8 per cent and the nearby suburb of Elizabeth recorded a shocking rate of 35.1 per cent, up from 12.6 per cent and 29 per cent respectively since the June quarter of 2011.
The unemployment rate for the City of Playford, which covers the northern suburbs, was 15.51 per cent in the June quarter and the upcoming closure of the Holden factory in Elizabeth in 2017 is expected to push those rates even higher.
Those figures are not enough to faze the students still basking in the success of completing their first house renovation.
Jed believes his hard work and attitude will pay off.
"I just think as long as whatever work experience I do, I just go 100 per cent and just commit to what I do," he said.
"Work hard and have a good work ethic, and just get along with the people I work with and don't put a bad name out for myself," he said.
Classmate Denis Jackson said the key to finding employment was putting yourself out there.
"If you keep showing them that you're an enthusiastic person and you're keen to work it's most likely that they'll give you a chance," Denis said.
But 18-year-old Issac Tuimuk, who arrived in Australia a year and a half ago as an immigrant from Myanmar via India, is not as confident about finding work.
He plans to continue with the program next year so he can learn more skills and improve his English.
"I'll do Doorways Plus next year, but my English skills are very low so I think I can't get a job for now," he said.
Program a confidence builder
Salisbury High School on-site educator Jed Masters said he had seen a significant lift in confidence among his students.
"The nicest thing is that students are now coming to the program and they're talking about what they've been doing on the weekends and quite a lot of them are actually starting to work either at their own houses or their family's houses or friends' houses," Mr Masters said.
"They're implementing a lot of the skills that they've learned here."
Educator Richard Megaw, who helped establish the program more than 16 years ago and now coordinates its running with more than 1,000 high school students in 41 schools across the state, is particularly proud of the northern Adelaide program which has renovated 26 Housing SA homes.
"Students get an understanding of what the construction industry is really like," Mr Megaw said.
Topics: education, secondary, secondary-schools, schools, unemployment, community-and-society, apprenticeships, elizabeth-east-5112, elizabeth-5112, adelaide-5000, sa
