As a resume writer and employment expert, I hear hundreds of stories of clients being forced to do ridiculous training so their job agencies profit.
Big questions remain if the privatised employment network gives a good return on taxpayer money or indeed, whether the system finds people work.
The privatised job seeking model needs massive improvements.
Dodgy training agencies such as AtWork, will have 19% of its 123 sites closed by the Federal Government as it faced criticism from jobseekers, during the rollout of Workforce Australia.
Joblife Employment, Status Employment Services, About2Work, will also be hit hard.
Job Active was replaced by Workforce Australia, which is a complex points system which digitally matches employers with potential staff.
Some 800,000 job seekers were shunted into the new system, which will cost $1.5bn a year, and left to face a confusing points system to satisfy mutual obligation demands.
Check out the massive tax revenue earned by some of the largest job agencies:
- Max Solutions $1.21 billion
- APM/Serendipity $667 million
- Sarina Russo Job Access $606 million
- Neato Employment Services $257 million
- Sureway Employment and Training $221 million
- AtWork Australia $136 million
- Global Skills $91.3 million
- MBC Employment Services $90.5 million
- Peopleplus Enterprises $84 million
Almost 20 years ago, the public service-operated Commonwealth Employment Service (CES) was closed. The CES began in 1946 when it was created to help returning service personnel.
CES staff often went beyond the form-filling basics to help struggling job seekers find work, as well as providing good advice on targeted training.
There were issues with the CES but greed wasn’t one of them.
Check the link below for great background in the CES:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-31/what-was-the-commonwealth-employment-service/101381032