Youth employment success
Published on 16 August 2023
Our Council will partner with Valley Educational Training & Enterprises Ltd (VETEL) and Ngāti Maru ki Hauraki to deliver the next stage in a successful youth employment scheme.
The Mayor’s Taskforce for Jobs funded an initial pilot programme in our district last year to prepare young people for work. Under the leadership of Ngāti Maru ki Hauraki, the scheme supported 16 young people into employment across the Coromandel.
Additional funding has been approved to continue the programme, and our Council is aiming for over 40 placements in the coming year. It will draw on the expertise of VETEL which has extensive experience preparing young people with work-ready skills, industry training and employment opportunities. The scheme will also continue to partner with Ngāti Maru ki Hauraki.
"Both partners already have a deep understanding of our rangatahi and what support they need to achieve success in our local business sector,” says our Mayor Len Salt. “We’re really excited about the by locals, for locals approach.”
The progamme enables local businesses and industries to gain from accessing trained and work-ready young people.
“We’ve seen from the pilot programme how effective this scheme is at not only identifying rangatahi who’re keen to work, but also at making sure businesses have what they need for their new employees to thrive and contribute effectively,” says Mayor Len.
In total, the nationwide Mayors Taskforce for Jobs community employment programme has received $18 million over the next two years, after securing multi-year funding from central government in this year’s budget announcement.
About Mayors Taskforce for Jobs
The Mayors Taskforce For Jobs is a nationwide network of New Zealand’s mayors working together towards the vision of all young people under 25 being engaged in appropriate education, training, work or other positive activity in their communities.
It runs advocacy projects and aims to partner with best-practice organisations to promote the economic well-being of young people.
https://www.lgnz.co.nz/local-government-in-nz/mayors-taskforce-for-jobs/
Youth Employment Dashboard
The Mayors Taskforce for Jobs (MTFJ) has partnered with leading data analysts Dot Loves data to provide councils with relevant and timely data on how their local economies are tracking in regards to tackling youth unemployment.
The ‘MTFJ Youth Employment Dashboard’ is searchable by district. It displays key labour market indicators and statistics such as: youth unemployment figures, Trademe job vacancies, school leaver attainment and destinations, the number of youth receiving a job seeker benefit, skill shortages and key employment industries.
https://www.mtfj.co.nz/youth-employment-dashboard/
For example, the key employment industries for our district were retail and trade, accommodation and then healthcare and social assistance.