Central Park Henderson Business (CPHB) announces the launch of a new initiative,

WAYIN (West Auckland Youth IN – to employment)

We expect to begin rollout in May with a series of articles in CPH News.

Some key deliverables are: working to support young people 16-24yrs into employment opportunities and support businesses to engage and employ young people, (including entry-level job opportunities)

Member schools already have a great record with Gateway, our current successes could be further enhanced with pathways into local companies, especially across the trades. Also, the programme allows us to survey and gather information with business leaders to provide data and context on current and trending job vacancies.

Building on the success, strengths, outcomes and learnings from JobFest West, key stakeholders have been identified to progress and mobilise local employer efforts; inform local youth on employment initiatives, capture updated relevant data, inform on gaps, needs and centralise / capture feedback and learnings.

A digital platform, which has been under development, and supported by the Tindall Foundation, is dedicated to improving youth employment in the West. This is a unique learning and recruitment platform designed specifically to help young people with limited experience and qualifications, to begin their careers, will be part of this rollout. This tool is also designed for business to log employment opportunities on a dedicated portal, to our local youth.

In March we met with CEO (Jeffery Wallace) & Vice President (Corey Matthews) of ‘LeadersUp’ a California based Youth Employment Transitional Support organisation, to workshop ongoing strategies to progress this with our members and West Business.

They were in NZ to conduct a review for Youth Connections and philanthropic funders for future functionality. This was a fruitful meeting which gave impetus to the fact, that we are on the ‘right track’ not only from the local accept, but from an international viewpoint.