Focus on training and employment opportunities

Rotorua mayor Steve Chadwick.

Training the key, says mayor

Rotorua's ageing population will leave jobs for young unemployed people to fill but the immediate challenge is to start training them to be ready, says Mayor Steve Chadwick.

In Rotorua, there were 713 young people (aged 18 to 24) on Job Seeker support benefits as of September 30, according to the Ministry of Social Development.

This was only a few more than in June, but almost 100 more than the same time a year ago.

Mrs Chadwick said one of her council's goals was to develop the district's economic base by growing existing businesses and attracting new ones which would help improve employment prospects.

"Another goal is to grow education, training and employment opportunities.

"We're also working with other councils through the national Mayors' Taskforce for Jobs, a nationwide network focused on improving youth employment and engagement in local communities. We've almost completed a plan with the goal to have all young people under-20 in skills training, education or employment by 2016."

Mrs Chadwick said research suggested local employment opportunities would increase in future due to retirements and growth in some sectors but the ability of young people to take up these opportunities would depend very much on them having the right qualifications and skills.

"So that is the real challenge we need to face," she said.

"We're very aware of the need to ensure the skills of our young people match the needs of employers and Waiariki Institute of Technology and other local training providers preparing our young people for work are linking with industry and employers to ensure training meets their needs.

"In Rotorua, we're taking a collaborative approach to this through Excel Rotorua, a government-funded social sector trial. The education arm of one of our iwi groups, Ngati Whakaue, is leading this initiative and it's focused on improving educational outcomes for local children and young people.

"We don't have all the answers or the ability to fix everything ourselves, these are community issues which will require the community's involvement and support to resolve - collaboration is the key and council will help to facilitate this."

A careers expert says young people need jobs or retraining now to keep them from drifting off to larger cities or overseas.

This year, Rotorua Careers Network began working with 18 and 19-year-olds who had left school without the NCEA qualifications and basic skills needed to get into employment.

Programme manager Lynn Gillespie said the network mostly dealt with "second chance learners" who would take up entry level jobs but they were also a part of a wider effort to get Rotorua youth employed locally.

"We want youth to stay in Rotorua, or if they need to leave for education, we want them to come back," she said.

"We don't just want them for entry level positions but also for higher level positions where there's skill shortages."

Excel Rotorua networking education programme and Careers New Zealand Capable Communities Rotorua initiative were also focused on improving youth employment, and the council had supported the involvement of more Rotorua businesses in career expos, she said.

Nationally, there were 24,640 in the 18- to 24-years age group on Job Seeker support benefits at the end of September.

Former chairman of the Mayors Taskforce for Jobs Dale Williams said youth employment was an issue of our time.

"Communities all around the world are realising that, as their older people retire, there's just not the numbers of young people coming through to take those jobs, so the race is on," he said.

"At the moment there's no shortage of young people in communities and there's no shortage of jobs but there is a big gap between employers' expectations for entry level staff and young people's ability to match those expectations.

"It's nobody's fault, it's just a historical gap that needs to be closed."