Helping youth get driving
Every high school student in CHB aged 16 or over without a learner's drivers licence will be helped to get one by the end of the year, under a new programme believed to be the first of its type offered in New Zealand.
More than 120 current Year 11 and 12 students from the district's two high schools, CHB College and Te Aute College, are expected to benefit from the new initiative, which is being driven by the Connecting for Youth Employment Trust with financial support from a number of transport-reliant businesses in CHB.
Expected to cost $12,000 to run, the programme was launched to hundreds of students from both schools last Thursday at CHB College.
Under the new programme, students born in 2001 or later will be mentored and assisted to sit their learner's licence test in exchange for a $25 donation — a substantial discount on the current cost of $93.90 to sit their learners, which is made up of a $48.20 application fee and test fee of $45.70.
Aside from the financial assistance, students who attain their learner's licence will also receive NCEA Level 2 credits.
Though the learner's programme is new, it follows work the trust has done over the past four years to help young people from CHB to get their licences.
In 2014, the trust started running driver mentoring programs every Friday out of EIT's CHB Learning Centre in Waipukurau with support from Rotary, using the CHB Community Patrol vehicle for driving lessons.
“This was started because the work we were doing with young people out of school, in court or Work and Income, often had one common denominator: no full licence,” said Vikki Graham from Connecting for Youth Employment.
“We knew that if we didn't start being the ambulance at the top of the cliff and ensure our young people were armed with a licence at school, then we could never fill the void within the community.”
The trust then set out to have driver licensing included as part of the national high school curriculum, and conducted a pilot study at CHB College in 2016 funded by the Mayors' Taskforce for Jobs (MTFJ), which became the subject of a research paper written by Massey University.
“The motivation was that every employer we spoke to said that a driver's licence was the one key qualification that they were looking for when they hired a young person,” said CYE director, Kelly Annand. In 2016, more than 20 CHB college students were helped to get their licence as part of the year-long Steering Aotearoa
pilot programme.
“We knew that if we could arm young people with a full clean licence while in school we would be setting them up to be more employable and connected citizens. We also knew from our years of youth work experience that it would have a huge impact on reducing offending, unemployment stats and NEET numbers,” she said.
After the pilot, MTFJ put forward a remit at last year's Local Government New Zealand conference calling on Central Government to fund an allinclusive universal driver's licence programme for all high school students at NCEA level two, seconded by CHB mayor Alex Walker.
Kelly said the current government said it would make driver licensing part of the national curriculum, but no money had been set aside in the budget to fund it. However she was hopeful funding would be made available in 2019.
“We believe in it so much that we're not going to wait,” said Annand. “With the wonderful support and sponsorship of Bevan Pickett from Property Brokers, Hatuma Lime Company, Stephenson Transport, Steve Baker from RealDeal Roofing, Takapau Lions and Mayor Alex Walker — and a small contrition from school and parents — every young person in high school in CHB this year will receive a learner's licence with the hope that funding will continue each year, and in 2019 expand the programme to a restricted licence,” she said.
Te Aute College year 11 student Te Ariki Norman, who will be eligible to sit his learner's next month, said financial assistance to help with the costs was a good idea, as $25 was “way better” than $93.
CHB College Year 11 student Tia Cudby, 16, was yet to sit her learner's test.
Some of her friends had their licences already, and she hoped the programme would give her that “extra motivation”.
“I think it will help out a lot of people and give them a push to get their licence,” she said.
Hatuma Lime's director of sales and marketing Aaron Topp said his company relied on fully licensed drivers and it was keen to support the initiative as it would open up opportunities in the job market for the students.
“Having a licence underpins their future. Doors are closed to them unless they have one. As one of the longest-standing employers in the district we understand that very well,” he said.
CHB mayor Alex Walker said the “exciting thing” was CHB could quite possibly be the first district in New Zealand to offer such a programme for all their young people at high school.
“CHB is leading the way in its youth development and we look forward to where we can take it from here,” she said.