Making Council Careers Possible: How Brimbank Council connected to local youth

In Brimbank, one of Victoria’s most culturally diverse and socio-economically disadvantaged LGAs, unemployment among young people is a pressing issue.

Council’s Neighbourhood Houses Team, through its Brimbank Learning Futures (BLF) program, is responsible for analysing barriers to local employment and working with community members to help them overcome their challenges and find work.

In 2017, Brimbank Council developed a Youth Jobs Strategy to support young people to build career and work paths.  Working alongside young people, Council also developed a Youth Employment Toolkit to set out good practice. Despite this work, the team felt these initiatives were not quite meeting the mark. Brimbank joined SVA’s Employer Innovation Lab to help think through how it could translate words into action.

The BLF team recognised the existing approach was not attracting young people. Before designing their SVA pilot, they decided to pause and listen – to young people, hiring managers, and staff. Based on that feedback, the pilot was designed for an area of Council that hadn’t traditionally employed young staff – the Neighbourhood Houses Team itself. The pilot was rolled out with practical, high-impact changes, testing key tools from the Youth Employment Toolkit, such as guidance on how to present a role to a young person and how to structure a youth-friendly interview.

Leveraging advice from the Lab’s youth consultants (SVA’s Employment Team engages young people in consulting with employers during the Lab process), entry-level roles were reviewed, and any unnecessary requirements were removed. Role titles were changed to become more straightforward and appealing. Position descriptions were simplified, and the language was adjusted to resonate with young people. The recruitment process introduced less formal group interviews to reduce applicants’ stress.

The shift was immediate. The team saw application numbers jump – a single Neighbourhood House Support Officer recruitment round attracted 280 applicants, while a casual hiring round suddenly drew over 300 people. As part of the Youth Employment Pathway Pilot, the Council hired four local young people into the Neighbourhood House team. It was the first time the team had welcomed youth into its ranks.

All four employees from the pilot are still in their roles today. One has already transferred into another permanent position, while two others have stepped into acting leadership roles. This is early proof that when entry-level pathways are made visible and accessible, young people take them and thrive.

Managers reported a stronger team culture. Young staff brought new ideas — especially in program design and social media outreach, connecting Council to parts of the community it hadn’t reached before.

And perhaps most importantly, the young people hired now see Council as a long-term career path.

Shifting how local government thinks about recruitment

Following the success of the Youth Employment Pathway Pilot, the BLF team’s long-term goal is to shift how local government thinks about the recruitment and retention process.

The team is now working with the HR department to see how lessons from the pilot can be applied more broadly across the organisation and beyond.

Key takeaways for employers

• Show your commitment: Articulating your organisation’s commitment to engaging young people in a clear way is key but needs to be backed by action on the ground.
• Take time to listen: Feedback from young people will help you understand what really needs to change.
• Make small changes: Small tweaks to job ads, language and interview formats can open new talent pools.
• Back the locals: Hiring local young people doesn’t lower the bar — it raises engagement, diversity and team morale.
• Lead the change: Culture shifts when change is modelled from within.

What’s next

Brimbank Council’s BLF team is now sharing its learnings with others across the organisation to help build more structured pathways from placements and work experience into paid roles and exploring how pilot insights can shape organisation-wide culture and strategy