'Good attitude' goes a long way

Connecting youth with employers may be as simple as acknowledging expectations from both parties, according to Northland Careers New Zealand team leader Pat Cody.

"What we've got to do is work on the interface between students and employers and look at their expectations - for example most employers say a good attitude is the number one attribute for employees to have.

"We need to work on how do we deliver these messages to young people - so they are fully aware of things like this before they enter work.

"At the moment it appears to be a rough encounter," he said.

This was one of several conclusions on how to deal with connecting youth and careers at a conference held in Whangarei this week.

Hosted by Careers New Zealand as part of the Capable Whangarei initiative, Wednesday's conference was attended by about 90 people from local business, iwi, schools, tertiary providers, community groups, and local and central government.

Mr Cody also said the conference highlighted the positive work many schools were doing to link students to careers.

"I think schools are doing a lot of good work that the community doesn't know about and I think we need to acknowledge that.

"Tikipunga and Kamo High Schools have their vocational pathways and students from those schools are really engaged in their learning through these pathways," he said.

A key initiative discussed at the conference was the Youth Guarantee programme, which is aimed at young people who are ready to move beyond school, but who still want to study and learn practical skills.

It provides them with an opportunity to participate in a range of vocational programmes, free of charge, at tertiary institutions.

Matiu Julian, from the Ministry of Education, said the programme has been positive in Northland, but agreed there were still certain barriers holding back youth from gaining employment.

"They need to start discovering who they are as people but in a supportive environment."

Mr Julian also wanted to point out that as a collective partnership, the group of organisations was not just about preparing youth for work, but also encouraging their creativity and entrepreneurial skills to create their own work."