Project targets future skills shortage
A GROUP of businesses, business organisations and government agencies are hoping to ease the transition from education and industry for students – and save the country a conservatively estimated $2.6 billion in lost productivity and public finance over three years.
The brainchild of Neil Whittaker, managing director of Fuji Xerox NZ and Business NZ’s Phil O’Reilly, ‘‘Career Capable Auckland’’ was launched at an event on Monday. Other partners include the Employers and Manufacturers Association Northern (EMA) and Careers NZ.
The project is based on the premise that career development is an essential component of growing a strong and effective labour market.
The effort is supported by research by Dr Gail Pacheco and the New Zealand Work Research Institute at AUT that shows that there are 95,000 young people not in education, employment of training, a group referred to as NEET.
This group will ultimately cost New Zealand as much as $23.4b during their lifetime, equivalent to 14 per cent of New Zealand’s annual GDP or double New Zealand’s education budget for 2013.
The project has published a roadmap titled ‘‘A Career Capable Auckland: Realising our Potential’’ which emphasises the need to build stronger links between business, industry and education to meet the skill needs of a 21st century economy.
‘‘We need to actively support people who are disengaged or under-employed,’’ a jointly authored foreword says.
‘‘We need to support migrants to Auckland to realise their full potential. It’s about good talent development and career development support.’’
Essentially, the roadmap says, all Aucklanders need to develop and evolve, including those not contributing to their full potential. But the city’s track record in this is described as ‘‘mediocre’’.
‘‘Our pathway to enhanced prosperity in Auckland is about getting this right.’’
O’Reilly said a handbrake on growth was the inability to recruit skilled tradespeople, engineers, or people with IT and healthcare skills at a time when Auckland faced high rates of unemployment of around 270,000 people, a third of whom were young people.
One challenge highlighted is the fact that 30 per cent of Aucklanders – or around 400,000 people – live in deprived communities and the gap between rich and poor is increasing rather than diminishing.
Add to that is poaching from offshore of experienced and qualified people. Auckland needs to attract corporate headquarters to ensure it is a desirable destination rather than just a point of exit, the roadmap says.
Another challenge is to utilise the experience of an aging workforce effectively.
‘‘The only thing we can really prepare workers for is further change,’’ the roadmap says.
young Aucklanders (15-24) are not in education, employment of training (NEET)
NEET youth numbers are up 44 per cent on 2004
NEET impacts on young women most, but male NEET is growing faster, doubling in eight years
Short-term costs are $27,488 per person over three years ($2.6 billion in total, including $1.1b in public finance costs)
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