Sign In / Register
Merv Ashton, 21, is gaining building experience by producing portacoms which can be sold to local businesses. The programme could be self-funding if businesses get behind it.
Snells Beach youth service, Springboard, is launching a survey of Mahurangi businesses to help tailor a programme to eliminate youth unemployment in the region.Springboard founder Gary Diprose says the organisation is shifting its focus to get employers more involved in tackling unemployment.
“We need to change thinking to get buy-in from employers. We’ve spent a long time focusing on youth, but employers are half the story,” Gary says.
Springboard Future Works manager Peter Meafou says the survey will give young people a clear idea of what preparation they need to do to enter a certain career and help shape their pathway into work.
“We recognise there are a lot of issues with employing young people, especially ones from tough backgrounds, but we need to show them that young people are valuable to businesses and will make their business better,” Peter says. “We want to work with businesses to find out exactly what we can do to make employing youth a more attractive prospect.
“If we can hear from 100 different business about what would lead them to employ more young people, then that is a hugely valuable resource to reducing youth unemployment.”
Springboard works with about 28 unemployed youth and has developed two programmes which try to remove barriers to employment by ensuring they have drivers licences, basic qualifications and a “work-ready attitude”.
Youth who gain employment through the programme will have a Springboard ‘coach’, who will regularly meet with them for the first three months of the job to ensure they are on track.
“We don’t want it to be like other courses, where people are dropped once they get into a job,” Gary says. “We want to use the relationships we have built with the kids to ensure this isn’t just a short-lived change. We want to get these youth into careers.”
Getting youth into work through the programme provides a huge motivation boost, he says.
“They can see that if they apply themselves then it will feed into a job. It gives them a way forward.”
Tree Contractors owner Linus Wood employed a youth from Springboard about three months ago and encourages other employers to them a chance.
“We need to train young people and employ them locally, rather than having all the youth of the area heading to Auckland for work. I think it’s time for employers to step up,” Linus says.
