<\/p>\n
\nKaik\u014dura mayor Craig Mackle, left, checks up on apprentice Louis Kennedy, 17, and his employer Luke Chambers.
\nPhoto: LDR \/ North Canterbury News \/ David Hill\n<\/p>\n
A Kaik\u014dura job programme has made just one sustainable placement since July, as the reality of a government funding cut sets in.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Te H\u0101 o M\u0101tauranga (Learning in Kaik\u014dura) operations lead Vicki Gulleford said her staff were doing their best after the government made changes to the Mayors’ Taskforce for Jobs programme.<\/p>\n
The programme’s funding was slashed from $260,000 to $100,000 for the year from 1 July, as the government focused support on getting people off the benefit rather than helping school leavers.<\/p>\n
”We’ve had a really quiet start because it’s specifically working with those on a jobseekers’ benefit and there’s not a huge number of them,” Gulleford said.<\/p>\n
”We’ve had one placement so far, but we want people to know we are still available, and we will do whatever we can to make it work.<\/p>\n
”We are stretching the funding as far as we can.”<\/p>\n
The funding is for 12 sustainable job placements, compared to 30 for the previous 12 months.<\/p>\n
The Kaik\u014dura job programme overshot its goal in the last reporting period, placing 46 youth in jobs in the year to 30 June.<\/p>\n
Under the funding criteria, the programme can still work with up to five school leavers.<\/p>\n
Staffing has been reduced from one full-time co-ordinator and two part-time staff, to just one half-time co-ordinator.<\/p>\n
Nicole Witterick has stepped into the co-ordinator role, juggling it around her day job at Clarence River Rafting.<\/p>\n
”It’s a huge difference, it’s changed the whole feel of the place,” Gulleford said.<\/p>\n
Te H\u0101 has been engaging parents and older youth to help fill the void, but it is not the same as having dedicated staff on site, she said.<\/p>\n
”Young people when they leave school often need to build some confidence before applying for work,” Gulleford said.<\/p>\n
”It might be as simple as hanging out and making coffee on the coffee machine or going on a trip skiing or rafting.”<\/p>\n
Mark Paterson, who has worked part-time for the last two years as youth employment programme facilitator, is continuing to volunteer two days a week.<\/p>\n
He had been taking young people fishing, which led to the Rodbenders Youth Fishing Club being formed at the beginning of last year, with young people taking on committee roles.<\/p>\n
The club went into recess over the winter, but Gulleford was hoping to reinvigorate the club as there were a few keen fishers at Te H\u0101.<\/p>\n
Te H\u0101 is also continuing to help young people prepare for their driver licence tests, despite the reduced resource.<\/p>\n
While some councils, including the Kaik\u014dura and Hurunui District Councils have faced funding cuts, others including the Waimakariri District Council received a funding boost due to the new funding criteria.<\/p>\n
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kaik\u014dura mayor Craig Mackle, left, checks up on apprentice Louis Kennedy, 17, and his employer Luke Chambers. Photo:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[48,138,47,232,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":["post-17127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jobs","tag-audio","tag-business","tag-current-affairs","tag-jobs","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}