My Account
Stanmore Bay’s Simon Weakley loves his work, but happily admits that he’s always on the lookout for new jobs. As Youth Connections coordinator, based at Coast Youth Community (CYC) Trust he’s helping young people find the best pathways to work and nurturing their transition into stable, full-time employment, while helping employers find great staff. It’s clearly a win-win situation, however, the benefits of the process extend well beyond the individuals involved, to encompass the whole community by creating a sustainable, prosperous and positive environment for all. The 45-year-old businessman, mentor and coach is well aware that times have changed since he was instantly offered a job at his first interview back in the 1980s, but told Adele Thackray that many of the lessons he learned then and since, still have resonance today.
Many of our young people have no idea what they want to do when they leave school and I was the same. I once told someone I wouldn’t mind being a Formula One racing driver, because I had no real idea. I immigrated to New Zealand from the UK with my parents and two sisters when I was 13 and went to school in Mangere East, but I couldn’t wait to leave and get on with life. I left at the end of sixth form, with accredited UE (University Entrance), as soon as I turned 15. Fortunately, when I started work in the early 80s I had the pick of where I wanted to go. I found out about a job through the school careers department, went to one interview and they gave me the job on the spot. It was the same for my friends. That’s how it rolled. If you were prepared to work and wanted a job, you got one. However, the dynamics are different for young job seekers today. There’s generally a more negative perception of young people and economic conditions have made jobs harder to come by. Before I worked full time I did cleaning after school and factory work in the holidays. That type of work experience is another opportunity that many young people are missing today, often due to health and safety compliance needs making it too costly or risky for employers. I imagine the sort of things we did with little or no training, like driving forklifts, poking stuff into a compactor with a stick and using our bare hands to run things through a needling machine loaded with steel wire, wouldn’t be allowed today.
Youth Connections’ function is to help bridge those gaps by engaging with the local business community to understand their needs and job opportunities, while connecting with colleges, youth services and young people in all stages of the transition to work, and help them to create the pathways into meaningful employment. Part of a national movement that came out of the Mayors’ Taskforce for Jobs, the scheme was first modeled in Otorohanga where the whole community became stakeholders and dramatically reduced youth unemployment and associated problems. The Hibiscus and Bays Local Board has contracted the Coast Youth Community Trust to work with businesses and youth under 25 in the board’s area. Based at Whangaparaoa Baptist Church, the Trust is already active and well-respected in the community with established networks, connections, youth and family workers and since launching the programme in April has helped people move into a wide variety of areas, from web design, welding and fabrication, boat painting and hydraulics, to lawn mowing, retail, cafes, restaurants and more. It’s not about saying, “ditch school and get work”, it’s about creating options. The solutions are as diverse as the clientele. That could be transitioning into employment, or into further education, tertiary training or an apprenticeship with an industry training organisation. It’s about having the conversation so they can make a fully informed choice.
As a parent of 14 and 16-year-old girls I’m aware that society sometimes gives the impression that they must attend university and it’s okay to accumulate a huge student loan with no idea where it will lead to. While there’s a percentage of kids with clear goals, who go to university and are ultimately successful, I’ve seen too many people who’ve gained a degree, and are not doing anything with it or believe they will make squillions of dollars without having to work their way up. Sometimes it’s easier to get employment and then add university on without the debt. Others need an alternate pathway to work. The classroom environment doesn’t suit some people, due to their nature, personality or learning style. However, if we give them an employment opportunity with further education connected to it, they typically thrive and become productive community members. We’re already in touch with 70-plus local employers, but still need more. It’s not just about today, but what their needs are for the future. We’re in the process of putting together a work-readiness training program and we need employers to define what they mean by “work readiness” or “work ethic” in their particular industry. If a business already has a job available we discuss their requirements and expectations before working with our schools’ careers teams, Gateway programmes and Youthline (who work with young people who aren’t currently in employment, education or training), to identify, pre-screen and prepare potential candidates to be interviewed. If a suitable candidate is still in school, we’ll typically negotiate a week or two of work experience that serves as a prolonged interview period, while staying involved to broker any transitional issues. Ideally, it results in a job offer and full time work, but we stay in the loop beyond that to make sure both parties are happy. Sometimes we can help with an issue outside of the workplace, as with one young worker who had a 6.30am start but was getting tired at work after staying up too late watching movies at home. It was simply resolved by a call to his Dad, who encouraged him to go to bed earlier.
The shift from school to a work environment is a huge transition and requires guidance. My first job was as an apprentice textile dyer and engineer for Auckland company Alliance Textiles and I certainly wasn’t an angel. Having my on-the-job training mentored by a manager was essential. Initially, I resented being made to do all the bottom rung, dirty, hard work, like sweeping floors and emptying rubbish bins. I felt like I wasn’t respected and wasn’t learning anything. But I quickly made a conscious decision that I was getting paid and I might as well do it as well as I could. My mentor immediately noticed the attitude change and pointed out that it was a lesson I had to learn if I wanted to be a manager myself. No leader should ask a team member to do something they’d never do themselves and you earn people’s respect by going shoulder to shoulder with them, rather than sitting in an office shouting out directions. That was a key turning point for me. I went on to work for various textile industry companies and organisations managing teams ranging from 10 to more than 200 staff before starting my own sales and marketing company in 1997, specialising in antimicrobial technology. I had to do some more study, but it seemed a logical next step and gave me the chance to choose my own hours and spend more time with my family.
I’ve lived on the Peninsula for 18 years and met my wife Teresa at her father’s home in Stanmore Bay over 25 years ago. Our daughters were born and raised here and I decided that if we were going to have kids, they would be the focus. I was often the only dad at sports days and school plays, and being the one that picked them up after school was cool. I’ve also been a business coach with the Dale Carnegie Franchise for the last 14 years, helping companies with staff engagement and improving their bottom line. I went through the training just before I started my own business and am now a master trainer myself. The process is about stepping outside your comfort zone, taking chances and leading by example. We work on communication and how to engage staff, by finding out what an individual wants in life, then showing them how helping the organisation with its goals will help them achieve theirs. One of the biggest mistakes employers make is assuming that employees want the same things that they do.
At Youth Connections I am pumped every day about what we can do to help young people and the fact that I’m focusing on the big stuff I can do for other people and the community as a whole, as opposed to just focusing on myself. The local board should be congratulated on having the vision to drive this initiative for our community’s long-term economic sustainability. We need to train our young people and have jobs for them, because if we don’t engage them now, in 15 years’ time, when the baby boomers retire, there’s not going to be enough people paying tax to fund infrastructure or superannuation. Who will be able afford the houses that we expect to provide our retirement nest eggs when we downsize? We need to create a system now, that’s not another ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, nor a fence at the top, but focused a kilometre back from the edge to provide viable options and pathways for our young people, our community and local businesses to succeed.
