In pursuit of a change in fortunes for job seekers

Buyers taking advantage of the fill-a-bag special at PurSuit.

Since launching in October last year, PurSuit has had a 70 per cent success rate in helping job seekers find employment.

PurSuit is a free service that helps dress people in professional clothing for a job interview and gives them training in forming a CV and skills for the interview process.

To date they've helped dress 57 clients with a 50/50 split between both females and males that are accessing their services.

The social enterprise was established by Moira McGarva-Ratapu to help dress job seekers in professional clothing as they search for employment.

It relies on donations and works closely with the Ministry of Social Development for referrals, it has now taken it's work into the Hawke's Bay Regional Prison where it helps those men that are ready to be integrated back into society.

"They're just so thankful and some of them have never learnt how to do a tie before and some of them have never worn a suit before," says Moira McGarva-Ratapu, director of PurSuit.

"It gives them a bit of hope, they acknowledge they have made mistakes in the passed, but they want to changed, and they have hope now that they can get a good job and that someone can actually give them a shot."

Once every three months they get the chance to take part in a two-day workshop where they learn how to create a professional CV.

"We then dress them up and give them some job interview skills and then on the final day we conduct a mock interview with them."

All clothing that they receive is donated and at the moment they are overflowing with everything they have been given.

"Our community has been so supportive, we're so thankful, but our room is so small we dont have anywhere to store them that why we have these sales every month."

"However there are some gaps, all the money rasied is used to things like underwear, socks, stockings, bras because those are the items that we don't often get doanted, so we buy them brand new from Kmart because that is the cheapest."

There are some gaps in the types of items that they need as they buy a lot of shoes and are in need of womens shoes in size eight and nine."

But it's not just clothing that they are in need of the room that they are based out of in the Taiwhenua is too small.

"We're looking for a bigger space to lease, so if there is somewhere that isn't expensive we'll be interested," she says.

More information on what PurSuit does can be found on their Facebook page PurSuit NZ.