Launch pad

CAREER START: After completing a six-month hospitality course at NZMA Otahuhu last year, Teremoana Tehira landed a job at Catch Licensed Restaurant & Bar and Guada Fiesta Bar with help from the NZMA employment coordinator.

There's a lot of talk about tertiary courses providing vital stepping stones into the workforce. But how many students actually gain work in the industry in which they've studied and how many of them slip through the cracks?

At New Zealand Management Academies (NZMA), ensuring graduates find relevant jobs is a top priority. So much so, that the private training provider has appointed employment coordinators at each of its four academies (Auckland Central, Otahuhu, Henderson and Hamilton). These staff are committed to helping NZMA students and graduates from their hospitality, call centre and business certificate and diploma courses into careers.

According to NZMA director of marketing Christopher Handscomb, the new positions have been created as a result of an extensive research programme.

"The research highlighted the need for employment coordinators,'' he says. "We need to place more emphasis on helping our domestic and international students find part-time work while they study with us and also full-time employment or further study opportunities once they graduate. Our objective is to achieve 100 per cent successful outcomes either by going onto further study or into the workplace.

"We can't guarantee to find our graduates a job but we can guarantee to help them find a job. Our job finishes when their job starts - we will be there alongside them until that time.''

Mother of three Teremoana Tehira thanks the NZMA employment coordinators for the launch of her new career. After completing a six-month hospitality course at NZMA Otahuhu last year, she landed a job at Catch Licensed Restaurant & Bar and Guada Fiesta Bar.

"I got this job during the last week of my course, with help from the NZMA employment coordinator. I love it - everyone there is really good and the shifts work well around my kids,'' she says.

For Japanese hospitality student Yuiko Furusawa, NZMA's employment coordinators have been invaluable. Just four weeks into her course she landed a part-time job as a food and beverage attendant at Auckland's four-star Duxton Hotel. The job will become full-time once she graduates.

"I'm really happy about my job,'' she says. "I saw the position advertised on the NZMA noticeboard and the employment coordinator helped me organise my CV and write the cover letter. It was my first interview so I was really nervous, but they liked me!''