Pillars for Success is a work experience program for young people aged 15-18. The project focuses on three pillars of success for young people to improve their employment opportunities including:

• Increasing young people’s work-ready skills.
• Providing work experience and volunteer opportunities.
• Skilling council staff to become mentors for young people while they are undertaking their work or volunteer experience in the council.

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The project was developed in collaboration with young people from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and young people from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds. It was initiated through a participatory session facilitated by the City of Charles Sturt, the Multicultural Communities Council of SA (MCCSA) and Seaton High School. The participants of the session highlighted that they felt more disadvantaged due to their culture and identified the need for skill development and available work experience opportunities.

The project will be implemented in term 2, 2021 and links closely with the following strategic documents:

• City of Charles Sturt: Community Plan 2020-2027
• South Australian Youth Action Plan
• City of Charles Sturt: The Brocas Youth Strategy (Draft)
• The Closing the Gap Report 2018 

Project achievements

The Pillars for Success project was based around increasing young people’s work-ready skills, providing young people with an opportunity to undertake work experience within the Council and increase the skills of staff around mentoring young people.

The Pillars project engaged 41 young people and 38 mentors across the project and placed 35 young people into work experience opportunities across a range of council departments as follows:

• Field services
• Community Development
• Libraries
• Open Space and Planning
• Economic Development
• Governance
• Customer Service
• Transport Strategy and Assets
• Information Technology
• Contract Services

The leadership group advised that we run work-ready skill sessions in day blocks rather than across 8 weeks and to run the work experience across one week.  This allowed the students to immerse themselves in the work-ready sessions and both undertake group work and theory.  During the work-ready sessions, mock interviews were held with 18 staff members ‘interviewing’ the young people giving them real-life practise and supportive feedback on where they could improve.

Training sessions for staff proved to be a key component in the success of the project.  Staff commented on how this training assisted them in supporting the young person to feel comfortable and engaged across the placement.  In addition, the young people felt more valued knowing that staff had also undertaken training to support them.

The project was a great success and staff are looking at how it can be continued in some form.

Young people in leadership:

Staff on the project consulted with a group of young people and involved them in leadership across the life of the project.  This group advised on:

- program format including what types of work experience opportunities they would be interested in
- training requirements i.e. what training they wanted around work-ready skills and knowledge
- opportunities to learn about career progression within council and career pathways staff had taken

Council staff involvement:

38 council employees self-nominated to take time out of their normal work to participate in the program as mentors.  This number also includes the CEO, Mayor and Senior Leadership of whom had minor roles across the program.

Project outcomes

The project outcomes were measured through discussions and rated surveys undertaken with young people and their mentors.

Immediate Outcomes: connections; knowledge; satisfaction
Short Term Outcomes: knowledge; relationship with a mentor; connection to the team; understanding of council;  
Long Term Outcomes: plan for future; continuing studies in chosen career;

Outcomes survey results

Outcome 1: Improve individual/community social and emotional wellbeing - 83.4%

77% of Young people have the skills needed to plan for their future  
86% of Young people have increased communication skills  
77% of Young people feel more positive about their future

Outcome 2: Improve individual / community economic wellbeing and resilience - 80.4%

88% of Young people who have increased knowledge about career pathways  
73% of young people who express an interest in continuing their studies in a chosen career path as a result of the program
85% of Young people who feel their work experience/volunteering has increased their employment opportunities

Number and per cent of young people who obtained employment  
63% of Young people who feel more confident in applying for work  
83% of Young people who feel more confident in attending interviews

Outcome 3: Reduce social isolation and increase the participation of priority groups in the local community - 88%

92% of Young people who valued their relationship with their mentor  
86% of Young people who connected with each other  
96% of Young people who connected with their team during work experience/volunteering  
92% of Young people who mentors say connected with their team during their work experience/volunteering

Additional Outcome: Charles Sturt staff have increased understanding around supporting young people - 85%
# of mentors - 38
93% of mentors indicated they were satisfied with the level of support they received from the program leader
85% of mentors said they were satisfied with the Pillars for Success program

Ongoing learnings and collaborations

This project had an additional benefit within one particular team as the young person completed a display in one of our libraries for Idahot on Transgender people. As part of this display, he developed a fact sheet which he used to educate staff about Transgender young people. Feedback from the staff and community has been extremely positive.

As a result of this project, staff have been asked to present at a council member to elected members. Discussions will occur within the council about how we could potentially continue this project at different times throughout the year as the benefits from both the young people's and the mentors perspectives is significant.

This project has received funding from the Department of Human Services Youth-led COVID-19 Recovery Grants and administered by the Local Government Association of South Australia.

Project images