Dream of helping kids into jobs comes true

Ray Bishop is passionate about getting young people into employment. Photo/Stuart Munro

Actor Ray Bishop has been making his way from one end of the country to the other with one goal in mind: getting people jobs.

Mr Bishop, who appeared in Once Were Warriors, The Price of Milk, and Jubilee, is father of iDream, a nationwide project bringing together people from all professions to create educational videos for anyone wishing to follow their line of work.

The website provides an A-Z list, with a career for each letter. For each career there are two videos featuring people in that line of work - one male and one female.

Mr Bishop has called in favours from around the country to bring in the stars of the videos. There is everyone from fellow actor Temuera Morrison, Silver Fern Maria Tutaia and singer Tina Cross, to undertaker Neil Little and quantity surveyor Mary-Pat Underwood.

Mr Bishop's journey from Kaitaia to Invercargill has taken him to 50 schools and 50 public libraries to hand out access codes for the website, which has a free 12-month membership.

"Over the next three years, we will visit 150 schools," he said.

Wednesday saw Mr Bishop visiting Wanganui City College to promote the website, an idea he hatched at the age of 17.

He planned to return to each of the schools he visited within 12 months, to run workshops and music concerts.

So far the project has cost him about $40,000.

His dream had always been singing, he said, so the free concerts he hoped to hold would be a chance for him to do what he loved best.

"If I can sing a couple of songs along the way, I'll be pretty happy," he said.

All up, the website iDreamproject.com had 52 videos, each ranging from about 10 to 40 minutes long.

"It was a little bit of work in getting it together," said Mr Bishop.

The website aimed to provide links and resources to help people, mostly secondary students, recognise their career goals and work towards them.

"It's about helping kids take away the excuse of not knowing where to go," he said.

"We're looking to produce an animated series for primary school.

"There is nothing on the market like it. It's a very engaging resource."

Mr Bishop began filming the videos in 2012 and started his tour of New Zealand in October last year. By the end of the week, he would have reached the 50th school in his trip.

"It's massive for me to be able to say I've got a nationwide project now," he said.

"It's going to be a wonderful vehicle to help kids dream."

Mr Bishop hoped to build personal profiles on the website where people could register their dreams and be connected with others who had the same goals.

"Everyone should have a purpose," he said. "Everyone should have a life that's filled with a positive journey."

Mr Bishop envisioned the silver fern logo for the iDream project to one day be replaced with a maple leaf or kangaroo, but wanted to make sure it was a success here in New Zealand before thinking about branching out internationally.

Wanganui City College principal Peter Kaua said they were looking into career pathways with the kids and the website was an "added bonus" for them.

Access codes would be put on to school computers so the website could be used during classtime or in students' free time.

"His website's all about future dreams, things kids can aim for when they leave school," Mr Kaua said.

He said the high-profile faces in the videos showed the students people could have dreams and "the dreams have become reality".

Anything that would motivate the kids was welcome, he said.

"The more they know, the better."