Over the past decade Dapto High School has been supported to transition hundreds of its students with disabilities to find work, apprenticeships or traineeships.
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But eligibility changes to Disability Employment Services (DES) has the school's senior student mentor, Peter Johnson, fearing for the current cohort of students looking for work.
"We've had such support for disadvantaged children over many years and now in this critical COVID struggle where everyone is struggling to even keep a job, to take away support doesn't seem sensible," he said.
Previously students with a diagnosed disability, injury or health condition received valuable support from employment agencies such as atWork Australia.
Now students also have to be getting some form of Centrelink support to benefit from programs such as School2atWork, which assists students living with disability, injury or health condition transition from school to work or further education.
"Most kids still at school won't be getting that. I fear the kids that need the help the most are going to miss out," Mr Johnson said.
He added transitioning from school to work or tertiary studies can be daunting for students, especially so for those teens living with disability.
"With the added pressures associated with COVID, even the most competent student with strong family support is going to struggle to get a job at the end of the year.
"A kid with a disability, he can kiss it goodbye," Mr Johnson said.
"I'm working with 90 students, half of them with an anxiety or depression diagnosis.
"Lockdown has severely impacted these kids who are at home and struggling ... do they log in and do their school work, well some of them do but the ones that don't, how do we get to them, what do we do?
"It is really fraught. And as soon as the school year ends , who is helping those kids out of home into a job? They are on their own now. That is pretty scary."
Dapto is one of the 300 plus high schools across Australia who use the School2atWork program as a way to engage disengaged, vulnerable youth.
Mr Johnson said this has proven to be very successful and changed many lives for the better.
"Our student cohort and their broader community struggle with high rates of socio-economic disadvantage including unemployment, family dislocation, related stress and mental health barriers.
"This negatively impinges on the opportunities and support available to young people seeking employment and career pathways," he said.
"We have worked with the team at atWork Australia for more than a decade, assisting hundreds of students from mainstream education and those living with disability into full-time careers and/or training.
"The level of support afforded by the team is of the highest order and we have had many wonderful outcomes for students in that time."
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Agron Latifi
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
