Kotahitanga, Partnering with business and industry – opportunities to partner with us

On-the-job training opportunities for young people

From left, Evelyn Ross, Chief People Officer, The Warehouse Group, Senthil Perumal, Director, Youth Hub, Pejman Okhovat, CEO, The Warehouse Group, Hon Carmel Sepuloni, Minister for Social Development, Des Flynn, Head of Stakeholder Engagement, The Warehouse Group, Viv Rickard, Deputy Chief Executive, Service Delivery, MSD, David Benattar, Chief Sustainability Officer, The Warehouse Group.

An initiative to increase on-the job training opportunities for young New Zealanders – the Accelerator – was recently launched in Auckland.

The Accelerator was jointly developed by The Warehouse, Youth Hub and MSD as a digital environment for young people to access workplace training programmes and connect with potential employers.

The programme aims to increase the number of young people experiencing work and gaining NZQA unit standards to support their transition into employment.

The Warehouse’s successful ‘Red Shirts in the Community’ programme will be the first training programme available on the new digital learning platform.

Since 2017, Red Shirts in the Community has helped more than 1,100 young people not currently in employment, education or training, gain retail industry-related skills and experience work.

The technology and infrastructure behind the Accelerator was designed by Youth Hub which is a platform that helps young people create online profiles to connect with potential employers and service providers as they enter the working world.

The Red Shirts programme will start running on the Accelerator in May with 1,200 young people expected to complete the programme in 2019.

Once this has been successfully delivered as a digital programme, we will extend the Accelerator to other sectors and employers.

If you are interested in getting involved please email industrypartnerships@msd.govt.nz

Mana in Mahi offers wage subsidy to employers

Employers can receive a wage subsidy to help with the cost of hiring a young person and supporting them to learn new skills and gain qualifications through our Mana in Mahi initiative.

“Mana in Mahi provides financial support through a wage subsidy paid for 12 months and funding to help cover any pre-employment or on-the-job training costs. It also supports employees with incentive payments of up to $1,000 at three, six and 12 months of continuous employment,” says MSD’s Deputy Chief Executive Service Delivery, Viv Rickard.

Throughout the recruitment and selection process we work closely with employers and potential employees (aged 18-24 on a benefit) to understand their specific needs to ensure the match is a good one. We also provide dedicated support for both the employer and employee for the first year.

“We’ve made a good start to promote Mana in Mahi with a radio and social media campaign and LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook pages. We want to work on promotion with our partners and their networks to ensure the message gets out and employers and young people can benefit from this great scheme,” says Viv.

To support promotion, the team has developed a Mana in Mahi Communications Toolkit that includes high level messaging, collateral, logos and case study articles for organisations to share with stakeholders on their own websites and internal communications.

If you’d like a copy of the Mana in Mahi Communications Toolkit for your organisation please email Emily Turner.

For general information visit Mana in Mahi, find out more on 0800 778 008 (employers) or 0800 779 009 (young people) or follow Facebook and LinkedIn.