Dwyer, 44, who helped place more than 13,000 disadvantaged people in jobs last year says that helping those in need gain employment can unexpectedly resolve other problem areas.

"Helping people relieve some of the financial stress is a good thing in terms of moving a whole lot of other barriers for people," she says. "It gives independent choice for decision making ... makes people socially independent. Work is the best welfare."

University of Sydney assistant lecturer and student support Peter Jack says that since finding and forging a career with the help of Workskil, he has never felt more positive.

"The world is my oyster," he says. "If you'd asked me five years ago where I'd be now, I wouldn't have said here."

Jack, 48, part of the indigenous Ngarrindjeri nation, had been unemployed for two years and suffered a serious addiction. However, Workskil helped him turn his life around.

"They supported me to get over here and helped me with interviews, clothing, paid for rent for first few weeks ... moral support, they helped me get some housing, pointed me in the right direction. They were great," he says.

"Now I help train clinicians to learn about drugs and alcohol. My boss sent me down to Melbourne last week to the National Indigenous Drug and Alcohol annual conference, then to Darwin in July, then possibly Alice Springs in August. It's great, really enjoyable."

Workskil, a not-for-profit organisation which relies on federal funding, recently established a mental health division called Healthskil, following increased demand for mental health assistance, an area where lack of work is often the trigger for mental illness, according to Dwyer.

"It's a growing area. It affects all types of society, not just disadvantaged people, but particularly long-term unemployed people tend to suffer mental health issues," she says.

"We offer counselling prior to commencing employment - self awareness, managing behaviour. It's down to the person to understand themselves and how they operate in the workplace. The first weeks are really critical and we make sure they get plenty of support."

However, Dwyer says that increasing unemployment is having a large effect on the majority of disadvantaged groups.

"Because the unemployment rate has been increasing, there are more redundant workers in the pool who are more competitive because they are recently unemployed, so they are more competitive for available jobs than those who are disadvantaged," she says.

However, despite rising unemployment and being one of the largest employment, community and youth services providers in the country, Dwyer admits that funding for the organisation is still a challenging area.

"It's a very competitive environment for funding. There's a lot of players in the market. Workskil is one of the largest not-for-profits competing against large private players."

Workskil currently place more than 1000 disadvantaged people into employment across many industries every month.

"We work with 23,000 people at any one time across various programs. We do whatever required to get them a job. Training, pre-employment, counselling, helping them get their licence, literacy, job search, interview skills, resumes," Dwyer says.

"It's a good pathway to get people back in the game again."