Teen helps fellow youths find jobs
Having started a successful online job site for youth, teen Liam Mcleavey is expanding to help provide even stronger ‘‘pathways’’ into local jobs.
Liam, who is a student at Waiopehu College, launched Youth Jobs Horowhenua on Facebook almost two years ago, when he was 14.
Young people in the area were frustrated from having trouble finding jobs and gaining experience, and he wanted to do something about it.
At the time, teens felt there was a perception they were lazy and rude, he said. Within half an hour of launching his site, 150 people had joined, and the page has continued to grow.
‘‘Last month there were over 16,000 views, with about 30 jobs listed, and all were taken through the site,’’ he said.
‘‘I have had people come up to me and say ‘I’ve got a job through this’, and I’ve had employers say that too – it’s a great feeling.’’
There’s no shortage of young people who want to work, but there’s always a need for more job listings, and more businesses to get on board, he said.
To help bridge the gap, he has merged the jobs page with the Vocational Pathways Network to create the bigger, better and newly renamed Pathways Horowhenua.
The network was founded in 2014 to bring together representatives from Horowhenua industries, tertiary education providers, industry-based training and schools, to provide information and partnerships for young people wanting to see how they could upskill and progress into jobs, especially locally.
The new website provides a wide range of information relevant for Horowhenua youth, including links to national sites like Careers New Zealand, and job seeking advice.
‘‘We’ve got heaps of resources ... it’s centralised, we’re targeted specifically to Horowhenua, we’re unique,’’ Mcleavey said.
Employers and industries that participate benefit from encouraging young people to gain the skills, qualifications and qualities they’re looking for. ‘‘The employers that are interested in community are definitely keen to be involved,’’ he said.
The new merged site, Pathwayshorowhenua.org, was launched on June 23.