Where is our disconnect with youth and employment?

 

Yesterday Mayor Len Brown kicked off a Youth Summit in the CBD to illustrate the high youth unemployment problem in Auckland,

From Shape Auckland (home of the Unitary Plan portal)

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I applaud the Mayor and Sir Stephen Tindall (who is donating $1.85m over three years to the Youth Connections Program) for recognising and spearheading initiatives to get on top of the youth unemployment problem here in Auckland. Youth unemployment being acute in South Auckland, Otahuhu, Whau Local Board area, and West Auckland. The problem is our business sector I believe need to be more proactive in helping youth unemployment as it affects everybody including them the businesses (whether it be depressed spending on their goods or services, or the cost of crime against them and others as a consequence of high youth unemployment).

 

Continuing on from the Shape Auckland post:

Sir Stephen also said that from his many years in business he knows how important young people are to the workforce: “In an ever-increasing technological world, tech-savvy and productive young people are a real asset to any business. The current workforce is aging and employers need to think about how they will replace their retiring workers. We have a large pool of talented young people and for our future business success we as employers need to be capturing and nurturing that talent.”

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Yes our youth are very tech-savvy, productive (when given a genuine chance backed with actual training and management (including nurturing and mentoring)), and highly mobile more so than previous generations. We have a very large pool of young talent literally waiting and wanting to be a part of our commercial sector and industrial complexes. The problem again is our business nous in NZ is known to lag behind considerably (retail sector both here and Australia being a point in case of lack of business nous). That said I am not writing off our entire business and industrial sectors as there are good ones out there that take a risk with our youths and take them on. Two of our bigger employers of youths – McDonalds and The Warehouse are well known for their training programs (both both youths and the older population they both employ). Those who climb the ranks in McDonalds and The Warehouse are highly sought after owing to the skills those employees have gained from their time at these two large businesses here in NZ.

It brings me to a key point on why we have a youth disconnect and youth unemployment problem here in Auckland (as well as the rest of the nation). It is not the SOLE key point (I will point more out further) but it is a big one especially with our commercial sector (industrial not so bad as that disconnect arises from something else) and it is lack of in-house training. Why do I have the gut feeling with the commercial sector that they look for “experience” but never entry-level and yet their in house training is either to be much desired if it is present at all to boot. Maybe we need to teach our businesses the value of in-house training and the returns (that experience) it can have back to the business (and yes it is a risk but business itself is a risk) – something Vodafone tells which is at the bottom of this post. Experience needs to come from somewhere and it seems our businesses believe it comes from thin air…

As for our industrial sector, the disconnect is between them and our schools. That problem comes from our education system incorrectly geared (rather than industry themselves are more often than not good trainers) to equip our youths with skills and choices they will need in the real world (tip: Universities are not it either). As I see it we need to refocus the education sector  and offer our Year 10-13’s two paths they can go down (there is more but I am keeping it simple): Commercial or Industry (which includes the trades). If we teach our high school students some good work ethic and basic skills for entry-level jobs in our industrial complexes (in partnership with the industrial and trade sector) then they have a straight path into hopefully long-term and meaningful employment. Put it this way our manufacturing and industrial complexes (by complexes I mean the big industrial sites of Wiri, East Tamaki/Highbrook, and Southdown-Onehunga (as well as other smaller areas like Takanini and Rosebank)) are expanding and have been doing so for the last 19 months. They will need more workers and we have this untapped source right there not being used owing to that disconnect with our youth. We can get a win-win here folks if we want our economy to grow and social ills to fall.

 

Some further points on our disconnect with the youth

• Education sector and the private sector – especially our Universities which are not doing a fine job of equipping our students with what they actually need out there in the real world
• Lack of transportation access especially to our industrial complexes. Yes our youth are mobile but owning a car is expensive. Our public transport system should be connecting our population centres especially where there is youth unemployment to our employment centres – again our industry.
• Universities need to be split and decoupled (hint separate out fully the Arts Faculty and have them stand alone away from our Science, Technology and Engineering Faculties) (another post I will write up late in the year).
• Challenge our youths with something meaningful. Being stuck on the same mundane task day in day out is not going to be very encouraging in wanting to be employed
• Meaningful training and incentives. Yes our youths crave knowledge and reward. If they do something outside the square that gives the business a boost – why not reward them with something meaningful.

 

So much to address and it will not be particularly easy either.

Finally from the Shape Auckland post:

• A coordinating Hub, based at Auckland Council and Auckland Tourism, Event and Economic Development (ATEED’s) downtown office, bringing together council and external agencies to work with businesses on youth employment

• A pledge to boost numbers in the council’s Career Pathways graduate and cadet programmes in 2015 (17 graduates in 2014 to 50 in 2015 and 10 cadets in 2014 to 20 in 2015)

• Tindall Foundation announces $1.85m over three years to continue supporting Youth Connections Across Auckland, which matches young people and local employment and training opportunities

• Regular summits to focus on specific issues, bringing together young people, business leaders and organisations which work with youth employment, to design joint solutions

Youth Connections is based on the Mayor’s Taskforce for Jobs ‘youth to work’ strategy, working with young Aucklanders to ensure they have a plan and direction for their future that connects to the workforce requirements of local businesses.

A regional initiative, it is driven at a local level by local board and other champions. The Mayor’s Youth Employment Traction Plan taps into and builds on the work already done by Youth Connections.

The summit, the first of several planned, was hosted by Vodafone. Vodafone’s General Manager of Human Resources, Jan Bibby, shared the company’s experience with Youth Connections and insights into its youth employment approach. She said the apprentices were a high performing and innovative group of employees who deliver great results:

“Many of them may well be the future leaders of our business.”

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My praise to Vodafone New Zealand as well for their youth connections work which as they have noted is paying many dividends in return for both employee and employer 🙂

I do have one request though. The next youth summit be held out near where our youth population bases are like the South and West please. Especially if you want to bring young people together and beat this chronic and stubborn youth unemployment problem