Dear ,
I’ve been thinking about cheeseburgers this week.
(Stay with me here).
The second I was old enough, I got a job at McDonalds. Whenever the shift manager felt generous, he’d disregard the rules and give us the pick of unserved food from the kitchen - which he was meant to throw away and log as waste.
Back then, a lukewarm McChicken seemed like a good supplement to the $5.89 I made per hour.
Today marks the start of the federal government’s much-anticipated Jobs and Skills Summit in Canberra. With many decision makers and commentators pondering Australia’s economic future, I find myself exploring my working past.
The summit’s aims are clear: growing wages and addressing Australia’s skills crisis. And while the implications are wide-reaching, the 140-person guest list is only slightly bigger than the average Australian wedding.
So it’s no surprise I’ve been mining FW Deputy Managing Director Jamila Rizvi’s thoughts on the topic all week.
Not only is she a font of knowledge on women’s employment and the inner workings of government… She’s at the summit, along with FW Managing Director and founder (and summit MC), Helen McCabe.
Women, Jamila says, are the untapped resource begging for more funding, focus and structural reform.
‘A lot of [unemployed] women would like to work, but it doesn’t work for them,’ she tells me, offering a laundry list of barriers and complexities you and I already know.
The cost of childcare, discrimination and a lack of flexible work arrangements, to name but a few.
‘We can tap into an underutilised resource if we make the changes required to support women returning to work.’
A recent study reveals that halving the 10-percent workforce participation gap between women and men would unlock half a million full-time, skilled workers with tertiary qualifications.
Unlike a boost through migration or a boom in Australians having kids, making employment work for women - and not the other way around - is an immediate solution.
A tap we could turn on with no delay.
It’s something I’ve seen firsthand in Future Women’s Jobs Academy, which works to connect unemployed or underemployed women with roles that suit their interests and needs.
The results speak for themselves. Eight months since launching, two-thirds of the Jobs Academy pilot cohort have successfully started a new job, enrolled in education or training, or started a business.
As I sit with the team, watching the Jobs and Skills Summit unfold live - it’s clear this is our chance to grow Australia’s workforce and wages, without making women beg, or be thankful for scraps.
A long way from where I started at 14 years-old... with still more progress to come.
Bon appetit,
Sally Spicer
Senior Content Producer, Future Women
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