It's why the Victorian Chamber partnered with Jobs Victoria and Youth Activating Youth (YAY) to deliver an internship program to provide career opportunities to multicultural youth. Now some of these participants are ready to take the next step into permanent employment, and interested employers can find their details below.

Australia’s Jobs and Skills report for 2023 highlights that our skills crisis continues to intensify. In the past year 36 per cent of occupations were in national shortage, 5 per cent more than in 2022.

At the same time, youth unemployment continues to be more than double the rest of the labour market, at more than 8 per cent.

Internships can help bridge the skills and employment gap. The benefits of taking on interns are well known: jobsite Indeed cites increased productivity from extra sets of hands, increased diversity, more visibility for your organisation and the prospect of shaping Australia’s future workforce.

But what happens at the end of the internship? Employers should consider the long-term prospects of retaining interns as permanent employees. This can include time and cost savings in recruitment and training, and increased loyalty from employees grateful for the opportunity.

According to Indeed: “Well-trained interns will make for great entry-level staff later on. If someone has already had the chance to familiarise themselves with the inner workings of your company, they’ll likely be an asset to the business… down the track.”

“Using my skillset”

Fahmi Mohamed is an example of this employment pipeline. A former intern at SCT Logistics through the Victorian Chamber and Youth Activating Youth’s (YAY) Placement Program, Fahmi impressed his employers and progressed from intern to a permanent position.

Impressively, Fahmi’s journey was not a simple path from university to work in the same field. A health science graduate, he now works in logistics, highlighting the capability of internship programs training new skills and promoting career flexibility and opportunities.

“I started off as an operations intern but now I’m an operational manager associate,” Fahmi said.

“On a daily basis I look after orders from Melbourne to New South Wales. I’m in contact with a lot of subcontractors and truck drivers about like what loads are they picking up. I also do a lot of online stuff like checking the orders, making sure the orders are planned for the week or the next day.

“I enjoy this environment; in other places I don’t get to use my skillset to the best capacity like I do here. I’m also learning new things on a daily basis.”

Mena Govalan, SCT Altona’s people and culture business partner, was full of praise for Fahmi and the company’s interns.

“They are very eager to learn, so much curiosity in how the business works and they always bring a lot of ideas to their supervisors and managers,” she said. “You’re going to have a new perspective from the new generation, see what they can bring to the table and reshape the whole workforce in the future.”

Investing in talent

For Jackson Yin, co-founder of prefabricated building business iBuild, internships are a core aspect of his business. In fact, 90 per cent of iBuild’s workforce started off as company interns.

“This really is a great talent pool for iBuild,” he says. “We found the skills are amazing and it also demonstrates a point that a company invests in talent. We get tangible long-term benefits.”

Jackson’s approach is born from his own experience in Australia as an international student more than 20 years ago.

“I have first-hand experience in relation to how hard it is for many migrant minorities or international students to get a foot in the industry in Australia. So today I’m very pleased to be in a position to be able to offer people these chances.

“It’s a great way for us to pay it forward so that we can support young interns, get their foot into the industry.

“We do find that those employees are very grateful for the opportunity and once they become full time employees, the loyalty is very high and they are motivated to drive business growth.”

Current jobseekers

The Victorian Chamber has an opportunity for employers seeking to fill positions. We currently have eight talented young graduates that have completed our industry placement program and are actively seeking their first permanent roles.

To find out more about the skills and experience that they could bring to your organisation, download this flyer.