PLANS FOR MORE EDUCATION AND TRAINING

Under the proposal, the highschool leaving age would remain at age 16, but further education and training opportunities would be provided to increase young peoples skills and ability to enter the workforce. These opportunities are likely to include more vocational training, such as apprenticeships, rather than training at polytechs or universities. There could also be more incentives such as income support, family support and cheap student fees, to keep young people studying until they turn 19 or find a job.

Minister of Tertiary Education, Steve Maharey, wants this to change: "We think we need to keep young people in the education system until they have their first qualification. If we don't do anything ... they're going to be at the dole office when they turn 18. We could get some of these young people at school and get them into a programme so that they can earn money while they are being educated."

Source _ New Zealand Herald 8 March 2002 "Incentives to prolong schooling" by Libby Middlebrook; Maharey Notes Vol 3 Issue No. 63 11 March 2002 "Education and Leaving Age under consideration"

MAYORS MEET IN CHRISTCHURCH

Meeting with the Taskforce, Employment Minister Steve Maharey challenged the Mayors to "stop being nice" and demand more from the government to solve unemployment. He also said he wanted less "back- scratching" and more action from Mayors.

Maharey: "I want a more hard-nosed approach. I think we will all soon get over being nice to each other and get on and demand more things from each other [...] Our challenge is to ensure that over the medium term we continue to build on the progress we have made. Much has been achieved, but there is still much more to be done."

— Both parties would work in partnership to advance the Taskforce's mission of "working towards the zero waste of New Zealanders"

— The establishment of Community Coalitions led by Mayors and supported by Regional Employment Commissioners would generate "action plans"

— A national strategic coalition would be established to ensure that a "whole of government" approach is taken to support local initiatives

The project involves putting together a package of assistance for a US company called Jack Links Ltd. The company intends making beef jerky (dried salted beef) for export to the US market. The new venture will employ around 450 people over the next 12 months, of which approximately 300 jobs will be for unemployed Manukau people — most of whom are likely to be Maori and Pacific Island young people.

Further to this, approval has been given for Enterprising Manukau to undertake some "value chain research" — looking at what employment opportunities might be generated in associated industries such as waste management, transportation, packaging etc. A Winz work broker is tied to the project and when opportunities are identified, they will attempt to match the opportunities with local unemployed people.

Sources _ The Jobs Letter editor Vivian Hutchinson; Christchurch Press 15 February 2002 "More vocal line on jobs urged" by David King; Speech by Steve Maharey to Mayors Taskforce for Jobs 14 February 2002 "Growth, innovation and partnership between central and local government"

GOOD NEWS ON JOBS

Source _ Press Release NZ Government 1 March 2002 "Jan record Month for Job Seekers

Source — The Dominion 12 March 2002 "Thousands more jobs predicted" by James Weir

• Where are the new jobs coming from? A breakdown of employment by industry group at December 2001 tells us that the strongest increase in jobs in the last year has come from health and community services (+30,100), followed by agriculture, forestry and fishing (+14,700), education (+10,000) and manufacturing (+9,000).

Other sectors, however, have been off-setting these gains with continued job losses. These include business and financial services, (-6,500), wholesale and retailing (-2,900), and "other" services (-6,800).

Sources — Statistics NZ December 2001 Household Labour Force Survey reports; Integrated Economic Services "Business Directions" March 2002

...BUT SOME CONCERNS

Sources — The Independent 27 February 2002 "Health sector job growth raises sustainability issue" by Bob Edlin

YOUTH POLICY DOCUMENT LAUNCHED

Opposition politicians have not been kind to the report. National's Simon Power called it "bureaucratic waffle which offered no real solutions". Act's Muriel Newman discredited it as "feel-good, no-good claptrap". Newman: "It defies belief that a process which took 18 months and involved consultation with 1,400 young people could come up with such an empty document."

Source — The Dominion 12 February 2002 "Harre unveils strategy to develop young people"; New Zealand Herald 12 February 2002 "Govt strategy identifies key issues for youth" NZPA; The Dominion 13 February 2002 "Harre defends cost of youth strategy" Ross henderson; NZ government press release 11 February 2002 "Launch of the Youth Development Strategy Aotearoa"

NURSES LEAVING NURSING

Source —The Dominion 9 March 2002 "Exodus of nurses doubles in decade" NZPA

MORE CLOTHING JOB LOSSES?

Apparel and Textile Federation's Kerry Harding says that a free-trade deal with Hong Kong would directly affect those NZ companies who manufacture for our domestic market. Harding says a Hong Kong agreement would not immediately affect the high-fashion export end of the NZ clothing industry but he warns that small-scale companies rely on the infrastructure (spare parts, suppliers and staff training) that the larger-scale domestic manufacturing provides. This means that a demise of clothing manufacturing for the domestic market in NZ is likely to be followed by the loss of our export fashion industry, as well.

Source — New Zealand Herald 11 March 2002 "Tariff review puts 20,000 clothing jobs under a cloud" Simon Collins

POVERTY AT THE FOODBANK

The study found that families with children, including sole parent households are highly represented in the poverty statistics. 79% of households that use foodbanks have children living in them and nearly half of those households are sole parent families.

Poverty Indicator Project spokesperson Campbell Roberts says he wants more effective methods of addressing financial inequalities for those who stay home to look after children. Roberts: "Everyday our social services see the evidence that poverty still exists in New Zealand and witness the detrimental impact this has on our most vulnerable citizens. New Zealand needs to be an innovator in social policies that will enable all to participate."

Source — New Zealand Herald 8 March 2002 "Poverty hits sole female parents"; The Dominion 9 March 2002 "Foodbank users among poorest"

WOMEN MORE BURDENED BY STUDENT DEBT

Association president Julie Pettett says women who have chosen to further their education are being punished through a system that financially disadvantages them. Minister of Tertiary Education Steve Maharey says that a discussion document on changes to the student loan scheme will be issued in May and that it would tackle gender issues. But Pettett says that with so little is known about the effects of the student loan scheme, the Association had commissioned its own study that would also be published in May.

Source — 9 March 2002 "Women `slower to repay student debt'" Leah Haines

INDEPENDENT YOUTH BENEFIT STUDIED

An Independent Youth Benefit may be awarded by Winz case managers to 16-17 yr olds who have either fallen out with or been rejected by their families but is sometimes critcised as being a financial path for teenagers to simply leave home. However, Dawson has found that one-third of all Independent Youth Benefit applicants have attempted suicide and she believes Winz has saved hundreds of teenagers by using their discretion to award the income support. While every teenager on the Independent Youth Benefit has an individual plan monitored by a Winz case manager, Dawson says that the benefit should be accompanied by more intense programmes to help teenagers through their problems which often include having no school qualifications, bullying, being victims of sexual abuse, or drugs and alcohol abuse.

Source — New Zealand Herald 7 March 2002 "Youth benefit suicide shock" NZPA

OZ — UNEMPLOYED MISS OUT ON OVER $250 MILLION

Evidence to a Senate estimates committee also shows that about half the people entering the Government's intensive assistance program for the long-term unemployed have already been in the system before ... raising questions about how effective the system is in getting people back to work.

Government officials explained that the budget figures were an estimate of expenditure and the difference from the actual figures "does not necessarily translate into underperformance". The anomalies were said to be due to such things as depressed labour markets and programmes that were being established had lead times that were underestimated. A spokesperson for the Employment Services Minister, Mal Brough, told the media that the Australian Government had budgeted for 300,000 people to start employment assistance and the funds unspent in 2000-01 "simply reflected the Government achieving its ambitions at a lower cost".

• The Australian Council of Social Service, however, says that the figures reinforce concerns that employment agencies in the Job Network are under-investing in "intensive assistance" clients and that outcomes are not as good as they could be.

Laura Tingle reports in the Sydney Morning Herald that under the Job Network system, a proportion of clients with particular difficulties getting work are offered "intensive assistance" which may include training, provision of clothing or other resources to help them find work. The Job Network provider receives an upfront payment when the person starts the network's intensive assistance programme and a further payment if the person gets a job or enters a training scheme. There is no obligation on the provider, however, to spend any specific amount on the client. Evidence so far suggests considerable numbers of people do not get a job or training from this "intensive assistance".

Source — Sydney Morning Herald 27 February 2002 "Unemployed miss out on $214m" by Laura Tingle