Evaluation of the Australian Wage Subsidy Special Youth ...

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ceiling constraints’ applied to Commonwealth Departments at the time. 27 Furthermore,
there were restrictions on dismissal with a time limit so that after the first 2 weeks of
placement, any placement dismissed could not be replaced. 28 Entrants to Commonwealth
SYETP were restricted though and could not have already experienced a placement lost
due to dismissal or voluntary withdrawal, thereby precluding people with former negative
experiences. Additionally, the whole cost of the award wage paid to the participant was
recovered from SYETP, while for private SYETP only the payment limit was paid to the
employer by SYETP (Baker (1984): 6).
‘Extended SYETP’ was also available, which was a slight alteration to the target group
and subsidy structure. Extended SYETP was for those slightly older, over school age, and
unemployed for a longer period. The structure of the subsidy for the Extended SYETP
was changed from a flat rate for a single period to a two-tiered rate with a higher rate in
the earlier period. The time tiered subsidy was $80 for the first 17 week period and then
$55 for the second 17 week period, in 1983. Although the subsidy was paid to employers,
the subsidy entitlement period was allocated to ‘trainees’, not to the placement, so if they
left or were dismissed before the expiry of the period, then they retained eligibility for
another placement position for the unused balance of the original period. This was termed
a split placement (BLMR (1983) p6, Table 1.3, footnote (d)). Table 2.5 shows the key
SYETP provisions at the time of analysis. The delivery arrangements required employers
to respond to the programme and provide placements through the national network of
CES offices operated by the Department of Employment and Industrial Relations. The
CES was both the administrative and delivery mechanism, with CES offices at local level
dealing with both the employer and the ‘trainee’.
Employers could specify a vacancy was exclusively available for an SYETP placement
(AIMA (1985): 90). Other operational procedures were also noted by AIMA (1985).
Vacancies for SYETP placements could be on a special SYETP self-service notice-board,
27 BLMR (1983) section 3 p17 footnote 2. Additionally, entrants to Commonwealth SYETP were restricted
and could not have already experienced a placement lost due to dismissal or voluntary withdrawal
(precluding people with former negative experiences). However, after the first 2 weeks of placement, any
placement dismissed could not be replaced. Dismissal was then uncommon.
28 Dismissal was then uncommon for Commonwealth SYETP as can be seen in section 2.2.6.