Extra career support for young people

Youth Transition Services (YTS) will be launched in Auckland city early next year to help young people to achieve their career goals.

YTS is a joint initiative between central and local Government, and is being implemented by the Ministry of Social Development and Auckland City.

The service will provide comprehensive support for school leavers to help them find work, training and education opportunities. It will work with young people to identify barriers to finding employment and find local training providers able to help them progress on their chosen career path.

Following a survey of Auckland to identify the areas most in need of support, the new Auckland YTS will operate in Avondale, Mount Roskill and Three Kings. Auckland YTS will be available to young people who live or attend school in these catchment areas.

Auckland YTS is an initiative supported by the Mayors’ Taskforce for Jobs. The Mayors’ Taskforce shares a goal with Government of having all 15-19 year olds engaged in work, education, training or other activities that contribute to their long-term economic independence and well-being by 2007.

Mayor of Auckland city, Dick Hubbard says, “All young people have their own strengths and abilities. We need to support them and enable them to make their own positive decisions about their future.

“The benefits, both economically and socially, of having young people actively employed are wide-reaching. Not only are we supporting young people to achieve their goals, we are creating a stronger skills base for our city’s future.

“Although the overall unemployment rate for the city is sitting low at less than 4 per cent, the youth unemployment rate is at 9.4 per cent, which is something we want to proactively address now.”

The Mayor will join councillors and other key stakeholders at a YTS information forum today to share implementation plans with stakeholders and the community, and to get their input on key areas of the service.

A contract will be put out to tender in late 2006 to secure a service provider to operate the Auckland YTS.

The Auckland Regional Commissioner for Social Development, Isabel Evans says, “We want to ensure that young people make a successful transition from school to employment. For some that will mean going straight into a job, for others it might mean doing training or further study.

“This service will give opportunities to those young people whose circumstances might ordinarily see them fall through the cracks and not make a successful transition to work.”

Auckland City joins 13 other councils across the county in implementing a YTS, including Waitakere and Manukau in Auckland.

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