Wanted: ‘People who can do anything and everything’

Youth and community facilitator Dylan Williams and operations manager Henriatta Ngarimu outside the Jobs and Skills Hub at 66 Custhomhouse Street. The door is open from 9am to 5pm weekdays for those looking for work or training as the cyclone recovery continues. Upskilling people is a focus of the hub.Picture by Liam Clayton

A new Jobs and Skills Hub has opened in Gisborne to help people find work, access training and support the post-cyclone rebuild.

“Cyclone Gabrielle had a devastating impact on the Tairāwhiti community, and over the next couple of years we’ll need more than 2000 workers who can repair and rebuild the region’s damaged infrastructure,” Ministry of Social Development (MSD) director of employment programmes Amy Henare said.

“The hub will help make it happen,” she said.”We need people who can do anything and everything — from repairing damaged fences to fixing up pipes and roads.

“It doesn’t matter whether they’ve got no experience or 20 years of experience. We’re focused on upskilling our local community and setting Tairāwhiti people up for the long term.”

Tairāwhiti job-seekers interested in construction and infrastructure careers are invited to go into the hub at 66 Customhouse Street between 9am and 5pm weekdays.

The hub is the first of its kind in Tairāwhiti and the first launched outside of Auckland, where three are successfully operating.

It is run by the MSD, alongside local government, other agencies and community organisations.

The hub has two years of operational funding from the Budget 2023 flood and cyclone recovery package.

Jobs and skills hubs are a no-cost recruitment and training facilitation service to support the construction and infrastructure sectors.

They support major projects aimed at improving employment and skills outcomes for communities through close collaboration between government agencies, employers and industry partners.

The hubs are based within communities so people can secure sustainable work close to where they live and access training to upskill into the construction and infrastructure space.