29 September 2023
Mayor: Funding boost will help more young Southlanders into work
Central Government funding totalling $400,000 will be used to help get more young Southlanders into work, Southland District Mayor Rob Scott says.
Scott was the driver in getting the Government funding through the mayors taskforce for jobs, saying the initiative had been introduced in other parts of the country with some success.
“I put my hand up for Southland to get a piece of that, and we will use the team at Great South to help us out with it,” Scott said.
Great South, Southland’s regional development agency, was already doing work around its youth futures programme in getting youngsters work ready.
“This is an additional step to line them up with employers and get them into jobs,” Scott said.
Southland was a diverse region and the areas with the biggest need for young employees would be identified and focused on.
Great South chief executive Chami Abeysinghe said the Southland regional skills leadership group had identified work shortages in food and fibre, manufacturing and engineering, health care, social assistance and tourism and hospitality.
The recently released regional workforce plan also showed that renewable energy – hydrogen, aquaculture and construction were “emerging industries needing workforce”, she said.
Abeysinghe did not respond to what Great South would be doing to help youngsters into work with the mayors taskforce for jobs funding.
But she said Great’s South’s youth futures programme was focused on reducing the number of Southland youth who were not in education, employment, or training.
The programme connected young people with employers and encouraged employers to embrace “youth-friendly standards” in their workplace.
Southland Youth Futures hosted employer talks in schools and co-coordinated workplace visits for students.
More than 2600 students had engaged with the Southland Youth Futures programme in 2022, Abeysinghe said.
The work readiness programme delivered in schools had direct links to industries.
Nearly 140 employers had engaged with the programme and 2300 hours of employer time was contributed to the programme in 2022, she said.
Source: The Southland Times – 29 September 2023