The Australian Department of Education, Skills and Employment has selected a number of external partners for a planned update to its online jobseeker portal.
Unemployed Australians have access to a myriad of services – payments, training, career support, etc. – online through the government portal for jobseekers. Help is available to anyone looking for a job: beginners, young people, laid-off individuals and people from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds.
As part of the New Employment Services Model (NESM), due to be rolled out nationally by next year, the government aims to digitize this jobseeker experience through an integrated cloud-based system. Several partners were brought in to support the transformation – including Microsoft, SAS, DXC Technology, ThinkPlace, Annex and Veritec.
DXC Technology relies on its extensive team of certified cloud experts and leads a consortium of digital-focused partners in the implementation process. Microsoft and SAS are technology suppliers: Microsoft Dynamics 365, Azure and SAS CI360 will play a key role in the project.
ThinkPlace brings its expertise in design and transformation, while Annex will support the development of digital products and services using agile and collaborative processes. Veritec – a Microsoft Gold Partner – contributes its expertise on the implementation and transformation of the entire system.
Each of these features is critical to the ultimate goal: to provide a cloud-based integrated portal that makes job searching fast, accurate, efficient and flexible for both job seekers and job seekers.
For tech-savvy job seekers, the new seamless environment offers the tools to make more informed career decisions. A contact center is available to answer questions and technical support is also available for the less digitally literate. A unified digitized interface enables employers to search for candidates in a filtered and efficient manner.
Economic recovery
All this falls under the framework of NESM, which is meant to facilitate the employment process. In addition to payments, skills training and subsidies, the new scheme also offers “enhanced services” such as personalized training, support and advice to applicants from disadvantaged backgrounds.
NESM was already piloted in 2019, although the pandemic and everything that followed during 2020 gave the program a whole new meaning. Originally designed to address the marginally unhealthy unemployment rate – 5.3% in 2019, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics – the NESM could now become a cornerstone of Australia’s economic recovery as the pandemic-induced crisis has caused billions in lost jobs and incomes.