Decent Work
Queensland Performing Arts Centre: Tech Connect
Overview of Year Four
I would stress the necessity to care properly for our ‘youth’ power if we are to produce the sort of manpower which will drive Australia ahead on the right course of national advancement in quality of standards as well as wealth and strength.”
Sir Vincent Fairfax, 9 November 1978
Nearly fifty years ago, Sir Vincent Fairfax highlighted the importance of investing in young people to ensure Australia’s future workforce and prosperity. Sir Vincent’s descendants continue to follow this sage advice.
As the cost of living crisis bites hard, investing in young people and ensuring they have access to decent secure work is more important than ever. That’s why along with four grants to organisations that support young people, who are facing barriers to work, enter the workforce in a supported environment, VFFF has turned its attention to the emerging trend of young people needing to juggle full-time study and part-time work as a financial necessity.
Many young people whose studies involve undertaking mandatory unpaid placements experience “placement poverty”. Reducing paid work hours to undertake a placement creates such a level of financial hardship for some, that they are prevented from completing the placement and obtaining the necessary qualification to pursue their chosen profession. The Australian Government created the Commonwealth Prac Payment (CPP) to provide financial support to Australian students undertaking mandatory placements in selected degrees.
“I had to sleep in my car for a week because I couldn’t afford accommodation in the area I had placement.”
Registered paramedic in Australia*
*Source – Australian College of Paramedicine
VFFF believes there is an opportunity to further improve the equity of future iterations of the CPP program and this year provided grants to Charles Sturt University and the University of the Sunshine Coast to provide equivalent support to a cohort of Paramedic students who are not eligible for the payment from the Government.
These grants will gather evidence of the impact of the VFFF payment on a cohort of young people studying in regional Australia and will support VFFF’s advocacy efforts to the Department of Education on how the equity of the CPP program might be improved in the future. Learn more about the Equitable Career Pathways grant here.
Four further grants were approved under the Decent Work focus area to support employment outcomes for young people experiencing barriers to work. Three of the four organisations, BackTrack Works, Warrama Li and Down the Track are based in rural or regional NSW and utilise a Work Integration Social Enterprise model to provide young people in their communities with employment, training and support. The fourth grant was to the Sydney Opera House, enabling the broadening of the Workplace Readiness Program at this iconic and much loved arts institution. This program provides employment opportunities for young people living with a disability and in the future will include other cohorts of young people facing barriers to work.
Over multiple generations, members of the Vincent Fairfax family have had strong connections to rural and regional communities, as well as the Sydney Opera House. The Strategic Lenses that guide VFFF’s work, include a lens focused on Family, which highlights the important role the views and interests of Sir Vincent’s descendants play in grant-making decisions. These latest grants in the Decent Work focus area resonate strongly with many family members.
Grants Snapshot
$3.2m
approved
5
grants
25%
of total funding
46%
for core operations and capacity building
78%
to regional areas
Grants
2025
Warrama Li, $545,000 over two years
To support the Warrama-Li social enterprise in Moree into a stabilisation phase of development.
BackTrack Works, $900,000 over four years
Contribute to the core operations of this Armidale based social enterprise that provides opportunities for vulnerable at-risk young people to access decent secure work.
Sydney Opera House, $690,000 over three years
To support the expansion of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) program providing employment opportunities for a diverse range of young people facing barriers to work.
Equitable Career Pathways, $970,000 over one year
To support Charles Sturt University and The University of the Sunshine Coast to provide equivalent support to that available through the Commonwealth Prac Placement, to eligible Paramedicine students undertaking mandatory placements.
Exploration Grants
Down the Track, $75,000
Development of a business plan for the new social enterprise at the site of the old Royal Mail Hotel in Lake Cargelligo.
Ongoing
Brotherhood of St Laurence
$550,000 distributed ($2,622,000 total)
Delivery of the National Youth Employment Body program and the BSL youth employment policy reform agenda.
Jigsaw Group Limited,
$475,000 distribution ($950,000 total)
Supporting young people living with a disability into open employment.
Work Integration Social Enterprise Grant Program
$262,500 distribution ($525,000 total)
Philanthropic Peer Fund to collaborate with six philanthropic peers to support social enterprises that exist to create jobs and employment pathways for Australians facing barriers to employment.
Highlight: BackTrack Works
VFFF’s relationship with BackTrack began in 2013 when BackTrack was still operating within Jobs Australia Enterprises. For over a decade, VFFF has stepped in at key points in BackTrack’s development. This includes times when a change of government shifted goalposts and ultimately resulted in the need for BackTrack to become an independent entity, purchasing a property in Armidale to provide accommodation for young people doing it tough, sharing the model’s success through a documentary film, and establishing BackTrack Network to help share learnings with other communities.
In 2022, when the 60th anniversary of VFFF was celebrated, BackTrack was one of the recipients in a special granting program that marked this milestone. The Foundation awarded grants of $180,000 in untied funds to 12 organisations nominated by family members. The inclusion of BackTrack shows the esteem in which BackTrack is held in by family members across generations.
In 2024, VFFF was again pleased to support the development of BackTrack’s social enterprise arm, BackTrack Works, as it continues to expand and offer disengaged young people the opportunity to get back on track. The BackTrack Works model is highly effective in preparing vulnerable, at-risk young people for a successful transition into the workforce because it simultaneously develops their technical trade skills, while building their job-readiness, resilience and community connection through practical work experience.
With strong demand for fabrication and rural fencing work across the New England region, VFFF looks forward to watching BackTrack Works continued success over the course of this four year grant which provides core operational support.
A key principle of BackTrack as an organisation is to be there over the long haul for a young person. Equally being there for BackTrack over the long haul, has brought joy to many members of the Fairfax family.
We know that not all young people are suited to formal schooling and along came BackTrack with an alternative model centred around Bernie’s motto of ‘You can’t get kicked out of BackTrack’. At the beginning, what was proposed sounded ambitious, but they’ve achieved their goals and now also have a special social enterprise in BackTrack Works. BackTrack is definitely on track.”
Ruth Armytage, VFFF Deputy Chair and daughter of Sir Vincent and Lady Nancy