Miss Rotorua Mana Wāhine course: Mother’s first job as waitress at age 41

At 41 years old, Vanessa Gordon has just started her first job.

The Rotorua mother-of-one is waitressing 13 hours per week at Valentines Buffet Restaurant and Bar in Rotorua.

Prior to starting work two months ago, Gordon says she had been on the benefit.

“It’s pretty awesome actually to get out there and actually make money.”

Gordon recently completed the Miss Rotorua Mana Wāhine programme - an eight-week course that helps women who have been unemployed for longer than 12 months to find work.

Vanessa Gordon got her first job after completing the Miss Rotorua Mana Wāhine course - a new programme which helps women who have been unemployed for longer than 12 months to find work. Photo / Andrew Warner

Miss Rotorua Foundation director Kharl WiRepa said the course - which has a 90 per cent success rate - runs in partnership with the Ministry of Social Development and focuses on building “confidence, capability and opportunity”.

The latest data available from Statistics New Zealand showed the unemployment rate in the Bay of Plenty is 4 per cent - or 7500 people. This compared to 4.2 per cent in 2022 (7700 people) and 5.2 per cent in 2021 (9600 people).

The national unemployment rate is 3.4 per cent - or 98,900 people.

Speaking to the Rotorua Daily Post, Gordon said she had not worked up until this point due to family reasons.

She said Work and Income referred her to do the Mana Wāhine course earlier this year.

“We basically learned how to do CVs, building up our confidence, goal-setting and work experience.”

Upon completion, Gordon said Kharl WiRepa helped her apply for the job at Valentines.

She said she was “fidgety” going into her first-ever job interview.

“I went for the interview and basically got the job on the spot.

“I was like, oh my God - I was excited actually.”

Gordon said she was originally offered fulltime hours, which she would reconsider in a few months.

Gordon, who lives with her mother, siblings, her sister’s children and her 13-year-old son, said her new job was “pretty awesome so far”.

“It gets me out of the house.”

She said she was “really grateful” for the Mana Wāhine course and to WiRepa for helping her get the job.

Valentines Rotorua owner and manager Dinesh Sharma said he told Gordon during the interview the job required working at weekends and late on Saturday nights - and she was enthusiastic about the job.

Sharma said the hospitality industry had suffered from staff shortages during Covid-19.

“Now that obviously the borders are open... we started getting people now. But before it was really hard to get somebody with that attitude [of] ‘yes, I do want to work’.”

Rotorua single mother Brooke Salanoa also did the Mana Wāhine programme but finished early because she was offered fulltime work as a timber manufacturer at a sawmill in Rotorua.

She said she previously worked in hospitality but had been on a single-parent benefit for the past five to six years.

Salanoa, who lives with her 4-year-old daughter Hazelle, said WiRepa put her in touch with a recruitment agency during the programme.

She had a job interview on April 27 and was offered the job “straight away”. Her first day at work was May 1, working 50 hours per week.

“It’s amazing - it’s everything I wanted. Because it’s so busy, time flies for me.”

Salanoa said she docked, sanded and wrapped timber.

“I like it there because it’s not just sticking to one thing... I’ve learned so much already. My first week - I was so excited to go back to work.”

Salanoa said having a job had benefited her “in every way”.

“Just living in general - the amount I was getting on the benefit cannot compare to what I can earn for myself while working.

“It feels amazing and I wish I had found this work sooner - it’s something that I enjoy. I encourage people to find something you enjoy doing because it makes working so much easier for you.”

Miss Rotorua Foundation director Kharl WiRepa. Photo / Andrew Warner

WiRepa said the Mana Wāhine programme was launched in March and 49 people had participated so far.

“And we have had a 90 per cent success rate of women who have gone into jobs after leaving the course.”

WiRepa said the other 10 per cent had chosen to decline jobs offered to them.

He said the programme was free to anyone receiving a fulltime benefit through the Ministry of Social Development. It was run in a whānau-orientated environment and wāhine would engage in “interactive learning”.

“That means we don’t do homework, we don’t do assessments and we don’t do any unnecessary documentation that puts our students under stress.”

Wāhine did activities such as weaving, poi making, learning their pepeha (introducing yourself in Māori) and field trips to different businesses to meet different female leaders or business owners, he said.

Ministry of Social Development regional commissioner Mike Bryant said getting people into work was a “key priority” and the agency was happy to be working with the Miss Rotorua Foundation and supporting the course.

Its current contract with the Miss Rotorua Foundation was valued at $99,000 which expired in September, he said.

The course covered tikanga Māori, retail and industry training, work experience and budgeting. Participants were supported to apply for jobs, attend interviews and transition into work, Bryant said.

Participants would also receive three months of follow-up support after starting paid employment, he said.

More than 4000 people in the Bay of Plenty had gone off a main benefit and into employment since the start of the year, Bryant said.