Nathan Guy: Taste Trail shows best of our region

Nathan Guy.

The inaugural Horowhenua Taste Trail was a great success last Saturday with public support far greater than organisers had hoped for. Well done everyone.

The Kapiti Food Fair is also fast approaching on Saturday December 3 at Paraparaumu. This is a well-established event that attracts celebrity chefs like Jason van Dorsten who will be showing off his creative flair and passion for food.

Both of these events provide a wonderful opportunity to showcase what our region's food and beverage businesses have to offer.

These businesses help to drive our local and national economy which is now performing so strongly.

Our economy is growing at 3.6 per cent, well ahead of countries like Australia, the USA and the UK.

Unemployment has dropped below 5 per cent and in the last three months 35,000 new jobs have been created.

In Kapiti and Horowhenua we have great education and skills providers that are helping train our young people for rewarding careers.

Providers such as the Kapiti Whitireia campus, Kapiti Skills Centre and the Horowhenua Learning Centre (HLC) which has recently partnered with UCOL are all good examples.

In particular there is increasing demand for apprentices in industries like construction, engineering and aged care. Recently the Government announced a new target to have 50,000 people training in apprenticeships by 2020, up from 42,000 now.

Trade academies are proving popular and give secondary school students the opportunity to explore careers while still at school.

Fees-free tertiary training is supporting young people who have left school without NCEA Level 2.

We are also running trade training programmes for 2400 Maori and Pasifika students, up from 1900 last year.

Judging by the huge interest in our local food and beverage companies, we have a real opportunity to keep promoting our region and creating new jobs and opportunities.