'We want to invest in skills': $1.6m boost to help young people into trades

Minister of Employment Willie Jackson in Tauranga. Photo / Andrew Warner

A total of $1.6 million will be invested in a programme aimed at getting young people into trades and tackling the Bay of Plenty's skills shortage.

Minister of Employment Willie Jackson yesterday announced Tauranga-based company TradeUp had secured the funding for its Pathways to Trades programme under He Poutama Rangatahi over the next two years.

He Poutama Rangatahi is a pilot initiative supporting 15-to-24-year-olds who are most at risk of long-term unemployment and are not in education, employment or training.

Last week the Bay of Plenty Times reported the trades sector was referred to as an ageing workforce, which combined with a stigma of being "inferior to an academic pathway", was creating a worker shortage.

The TradeUp programme aimed to prepare youth for full-time work in the first six months before finding employment, primarily in Tauranga and Rotorua.

Post-placement support for up to one year was also provided, which Jackson said would help employers access labour to meet the demands resulting from the region's growth.

Jackson said the programme would help provide a skilled labour force and future-proof the region.

"We want to invest in skills here. We don't want to have to run overseas every time we have a skills shortage," he said.

"Skills are everything; young people are everything. We believe in our young people."

Pathway to Trades manager Charlie Savage said the funds would be used to support at-risk youth aged 16-17 in the Western Bay of Plenty and Rotorua into full-time employment.

"They are what we believe are the invisible unemployed," he said. "They are the age group that is falling out of school."

Savage said the goal was to get 100 youth in into full-time employment in the next 24 months.

Rotorua Mayor Steve Chadwick. Photo / Andrew Warner

Rotorua Mayor Steve Chadwick said the programme would be well received.

"Knowing there is a staircase into hope and opportunity. It's going to be big," she said.

Mayor Greg Brownless said having a trade was an excellent skill to have and was often difficult to find.

"The skills that are learned in these areas are very marketable and have value in the community," he said.

Tauranga Mayor Greg Brownless. Photo / Andrew Warner

Managing director of Tauranga Hardware and Plumbing, Craig McCord, said the move was a step in the right direction. "It means slowly, but surely we are being heard," he said.

Master Plumbers chief executive Greg Wallace said the plumbing industry was short about 3500 apprentices throughout New Zealand - mainly in Auckland, Waikato/Bay of Plenty and Queenstown.

Wallace said the plumbing industry was an ageing workforce, with the average plumber's age about 54 to 55 and only about 19 per cent of sectors taking on apprentices.

"Our biggest challenge is placing school leavers between the age of 17 and 22," he said.

He hoped the programme would help fill that void. "The reality is, these employers have criteria that they want to achieve," he said.

BCITO chief executive Warwick Quinn said the programme helped to create awareness that trades were a good career.

"Skills are needed very much in that part of the country," he said. "If they get the basis that sets them up so they are employable in full-time work, that is a great thing."

Registered Master Builders Rotorua president Bill Clement said there was a shortage of apprentices in the building trade, and welcomed the idea.

"We have got to have people coming through with the right skills," he said.

Charlie Savage, Jan Tinetti, Willie Jackson, Steve Chadwick, Angie Warren-Clark and Greg Brownless. Photo / Andrew Warner

Bay of Plenty Labour list MP Angie Warren Clark said the programme would support young people to know what employers were looking for.

Tauranga Labour list MP Jan Tinetti said it would give young people a better pathway.

In a statement, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones said it was important young people had employment as soon as possible and that employers had access to people who can quickly contribute to their growing businesses.