Would you employ a school leaver?

Unemployment is at record lows but young people who leave school early still battle to get jobs, writes Kylie Munro
Waitakere school leavers are battling to find full-time employment, a new report shows. The Waitakere Youth Transition School Leaver Follow Up Project 2005-2006 found just 38 per cent of school leavers who wanted full-time work achieved their goal. Waitakere Youth Transition Services manager Wendy Ferguson says young people haven't benefited from low unemployment figures ? 3.6 per cent for the June quarter. ''A lot thought they would get a job but in actual fact the reality of the workplace is that the number of jobs required by young people is just not there,'' she says. ''There's a lot of employer angst around taking on young people. ''They are costly, it takes time to supervise them, they make mistakes and they can be unreliable. ''Even though that's not everyone, it is very much an employer perception.'' Ms Ferguson says young people are also not taking up long-term jobs like they did 10 to 20 years ago. The study recorded the intended destination and actual activity six months later of 1551 Year 12 and 13 students who left 11 Waitakere schools between April last year and March this year. The majority of students, 348, returned to school, while 333 went into tertiary study. Sciences were the most popular courses and Auckland University the favourite institution. Youth training courses attracted 116 young people, 192 went into part-time or full-time work, 23 took apprenticeships, 25 were job seeking, 12 changed schools, three were doing work experience, two were parenting, one was on benefits and 74 had no activity. The destination of 422 young people could not be confirmed. But only 43 per cent of young people ended up in their planned destination. Of the 405 students who intended doing tertiary study, 65 per cent achieved this goal, while 64 per cent of those who planned to go into youth training did so. Only 35 per cent of those wanting apprenticeships got them. Ms Ferguson says it was positive so many students returned to school. During the study Waitakere Youth Transition Services gave customized support to 356 young people to help them move into work, further training or back to school, she says. The service offers help on writing resumes amd how to do job interviews, and young people have access to a resource centre. ''We help them find direction and work with them to to find out what they want to do,'' says Ms Ferguson. The service can be contacted on 835 1176.