The Mayor's Taskforce for Jobs Inzone Mobile Careers Coach in Dannevirke with Tararua Mayor Tracey Collis, Inzone Experience Ltd chief executive Peter Doake and his wife Donna.
The Mayor's Taskforce for Jobs Inzone Mobile Careers Coach in Dannevirke with Tararua Mayor Tracey Collis, Inzone Experience Ltd chief executive Peter Doake and his wife Donna.
This month the Ministry of Social Development continued its partnership with the Tararua District Council by agreeing to fund two more years of the Tararua Mayors Taskforce for Jobs’ Rural Community Resilience Programme.
The programme places young people who are not in education, employment or training, people living with disabilities and other disadvantaged people into work.
People in rural New Zealand can face more significant challenges when entering into the labour force, including a lack of access to skill development pathways, driver licensing and testing facilities and a lack of access to employers.
MTFJ's Fontayne Chase (centre) with Tararua Mayor Tracey Collis (left) and Adele Small, TDC group manager for strategy and community wellbeing, with a poster featuring some of its successful job-seekers.
The Mayors Taskforce for Jobs (MTFJ) is a nationwide network of New Zealand’s mayors working towards getting young people aged 16-25 engaged in employment, education, training or other positive activity in their communities.
Tararua mayors have been actively involved in the MTFJ Core Group since its inception in 2000, with the most recent contract for Tararua worth $585,000.
For the past three years, Fontayne Chase has been the coordinator of the Tararua MTFJ and her task has been to get young people into work, assess their needs, research job opportunities, help them apply and prepare for work then follow their progress, all funded by the task force with zero cost to ratepayers.
In the past year, 80 young people have found work through the Tararua MTFJ.
Another Mayors Taskforce for Jobs initiative paid its first visit to Dannevirke and, in fact, the North Island recently.
The Inzone Mobile Careers Coach sponsored by the MTFJ and the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) set up for business in The Hub carpark this month.
The $1.5 million Inzone Mobile Careers Coach has 26 careers kiosks on board - allowing 26 people to go through the coach every 30 minutes. The kiosks feature short video presentations about New Zealand work/training providers and inspirational Kiwis in industry or business.
The careers coach was developed by successful South Island businessman Peter Doake, who decided two years ago to help senior high school students to select and settle into careers, starting with motivational shows.
Young Tararua job seekers were fascinated by the information kiosks inside the coach.
After a huge response south of Cook Strait, Peter and his wife Donna came north, the first stop being Dannevirke.
The couple also built 70 World of Work stand-alone kiosks to help those that will not get a visit from the Mobile Careers Coach.
Tararua got four of the kiosks last year, one for Tararua College, another at Dannevirke High School and one each at Tararua Community Youth Services in Dannevirke and Pahiatua. All were funded through the MTFJ and MSD.
Tararua District Mayor Tracey Collis says she is thrilled with the success of the MTFJ programme. She says her dream is to see young people in meaningful employment with all the opportunities it offers.
“I want to ensure that young people in the transition from school to work don’t fall through the gaps.”
