Veterans employment program in Australia
Veterans Programs
Criteria for ADF members eligible for assistance:
- Current or former serving member of the ADF
- Have mental or physical injuries from your service
- Currently experience hardship or lack of employment?
Veterans Programs
CIS projects and programs are focused on enabling Australians, leaving or who have left the Australian Defence Force and, are experiencing financial hardship, socio-economic disadvantage and/or illness, injury or disability as a result of their service:
- To transition smoothly into civilian employment through tailored career planning, mentoring and counselling.
- Where appropriate gain nationally recognised qualifications and/or have any transferrable military skills appropriately recognised in a civilian context to ultimately find decent, meaningful and sustainable work.
How does education and job prospects solve veteran unemployment issues?
Veterans employment program in Australia
The rate of unemployment among veterans is astounding.
According to Prime Minister’s Veterans’ Employment Program (2019),
- Current 641,300 veterans in Australia.
- More than 5500 leaving the Australian Defense Forces (ADF) annually.
- One in three veterans (30.2%) in Australia are unemployed.
- Those who are employed, their earnings are 30 per cent lower compared to what they previously earned, and
- 19% are underemployed for the knowledge and skills they have.
This is despite the veterans possessing a broad range of skills acquired during their time in service.
This number could contribute immensely to the national economy given an opportunity. According to Andrewartha & Harvey (2019), research has shown that veterans outperform the general populations in a broad range of skills required in employment including leadership, communication skills, risk management, critical thinking, negotiations, and problem-solving among others. Example, former defence force personnel performed six times better in program management compared to the national average in comparison.
However, there still exist barriers, stereotype being one of them, which limit the chances of the veterans exploring equal employment opportunities as other populations leading to skewed participation in the regular labour market.
Despite possessing the necessary skills to undertake a broad range of tasks in an employment setting, the need for educational qualification serves as a huge barrier to the transition of veterans from military service to the regular employment.
Besides a lack of necessary education qualification, mental health especially the presumption that the ex-ADFs suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a significant reason for which employers are not willing to enroll veterans.
According to the Institution for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) as stated by Andrewartha et al. (2019),
- “Higher education is an internationally established pathway to assist veterans to successfully transition from the military into civilian life and rewarding employment” (94).
- The Australian Department of Veteran Affairs contributes financial support to some veterans, but this support is mainly for short-term vocational education as opposed to higher education.
- With the Serviceman’s Readjustment Act of 1944, US has been able to contribute towards policy, legislations and institutional support aimed at promoting access to higher education among veterans. The outcome has been more than 2.9 million veterans attaining higher education since 9/11 until 2017, making them have better chances of competing in the labour market as the general population.
CASE STUDY
After joining the army in 2003, Matt undertook his apprenticeship as a heavy vehicle mechanic. He had multiple deployment and postings including in Afghanistan but had an advantage of obtaining training. After thirteen years, he decided to settle with family pursuing a broad range of job opportunities. Unlike most veterans, Matt qualified as Diesel Mechanic and had a certificate. Through a Facebook advertisement, Matt landed a job at Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics (WWL) and has since been promoted to a strategic position. Matt’s case points to the need for educational qualification among veterans for their chances of landing a job to be enhanced.
The chance to offer veteran employment in Australia, vocational and higher education to them is one of the foremost objectives of CIS. Under our immensely popular veterans’ employment program in Australia, our team studies and assess the resume of every ex-servicemen walking into our office. We meet you, counsel you and understand what is the additional educational qualification required to make you ready for the job market in Australia. Rising rates of unemployment for military veterans is a cause of concern for everyone here who understands the significance of developing the job potential of the underserved communities in the country.
As an essential part of CIS’s veteran employment in Australia, ex-servicemen are encouraged to take up programs and courses being offered by us at no cost. The best feature of our vocational education training programs is that they are offered as per your interest and expertise. So, while you may have received extensive combat fighting skills in the military, we work together to blend this acquired skill with the needs of the Australian job market. Our veterans’ employment program in Australia consists of vocational courses as well as higher education programs. The choice of which program to enrol for is finally yours, but we provide you with facts and figures and aid you in every which way, to take the correct decision. Our experienced and trained personnel who have worked in the program of veteran employment in Australia, ensure that the malaise of unemployment for military veterans does not affect your future prospects.
CIS is a non-profit organisation involved in community development services of the indigenous population of Australia along with the veteran community. Since these two communities are believed today to be the underserviced segments of the society, we are committed to ensuring equal education and job opportunities to both the community. The veterans’ employment program in Australia is devoted to the cause of our ex-military men and women who have retired from services at the end of their service. Today, many of them are struggling to relocate to the corporate sector and follow a career of their dreams because of the growing rate of unemployment for military veterans in the country.
We, however, think differently. We believe that with professional push and support, our capable veterans can become a force to reckon within the business world. For us, veteran employment in Australia is very close to our heart and we make sincere efforts to get our retired service people ably employed at different levels in the corporate world. We have a separate division catering to veterans’ employment program in Australia that is whole-heartedly focused on working for your well-being and upliftment.