Bill Shorten has vowed a Labor government would help 20,000 young Australians get into employment through six weeks' training followed by six months' work at award wages.
Australians aged 15 to 24 will be able to use the program, which will prioritise those who have been out of work for at least a year and have no post-school qualifications.
Instead of paying them the dole, the government will pay their wage, which will be at the equivalent of an award training wage - generally significantly more than the dole.
Labor says the plan has been costed by the Parliamentary Budget Office and will not hit the budget bottom line because it will be offset by existing training subsidies being scrapped.
"What we've got to do is to make sure these kids aren't put in the too-hard basket and fobbed off with some 7-Eleven wage system," Mr Shorten said, launching the plan in Hobart.
Although he couldn't guarantee the young workers would be kept on beyond the six months by employers, they would have "six months of work on their CV", he said. There were many young people from poor areas for whom "six months on their CV doesn't exist".
"The hardest day of work for most young people is their first and second days of work. Once they get into the stream of getting up in the morning, going to work, doing a shift, it creates a sense of pride and self-respect, which is life-changing."
A single person on Newstart, which is the dole for people aged 22 and above, currently receives up to $527.60 per fortnight on the Newstart allowance.
The youth allowance, which is paid to people aged 21 and below who are looking for work, is $433.20 to a person who does not live at their parents' house.
Award training wages vary by circumstances but a recent school leaver who had completed Year 12 and begins training in hospitality gets about $900 a fortnight before tax.
The Labor plan compares with the Coalition's Youth Jobs PaTH program, which pays for up to 120,000 young people to have training and some wage subsidies. It includes internship placements, which would pay young people $200 a fortnight on top of the dole, and subsidies of between $6500 and $10,000 who took on eligible young people as employees or apprentices.
Mr Shorten said the government's scheme would under-pay people.
