Young people can find navigating services difficult.
There is an opportunity to improve young people's awareness and early experience of services.
Evidence
Young people (18-24 years) engage with services frequently. Around one in two have multiple reasons to access Australian public services in a 12 month period (53% ). These reasons often include looking for work, entering tertiary or vocational education and travelling overseas.
Young people's service interactions are often complex.
A third engage with multiple services for the same reason (33%). They are also more likely to use multiple channels to access services (51% compared to the 41% average), and more likely engage with services face-to-face (31% compared to the 26% average).
These complex interactions can be difficult for young people to navigate, with over one third reporting high effort when accessing multiple services (39%). A lack of awareness about services may be contributing to their perception that accessing services takes a lot of effort.
Opportunity
Getting the experience right for young people is important, especially as many may be interacting with services for the first time. As documented in this report, every experience matters and the first experience is vital for building trust in Australian public services.
Understanding young people's awareness, needs and preferences of the range of services available is a priority.
A particular area of focus is the need for services as young people transition from school into work and further education.
This helps in the design of easy to navigate services, which is important for young people who often lack the knowhow of where to go and what to do.
Together the APS can work together to:
- Understand the user journeys of young people interacting with Australian public services, identifying areas for improvement.
- Convene agencies to discuss how to improve young people's awareness and early experience of Australian public services.
Over the medium-term, a co-design project to improve awareness for young people accessing services would provide a strong example of APS engagement practices and address Survey results that young people can find navigating services difficult.