Election 2011 - Party Policies - Economy - Youth

9th Sep 11, 12:44pm by Jonathan Barron

Youth Employment & Training Issues

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Re-introduce a youth training rate or minimum wage. (more here)

Introduce a universal student allowance, at the level of the unemployment benefit, for full-time students, including 16 and 17 year olds in tertiary education.
Immediately cap student fees at $1,500 per annum; progressively phase out the student fee system; and, for people who are contributing in paid or unpaid work in New Zealand, each year write off the student debt that it took them one year's worth of study to accrue. (more here)

Completing the Youth Transitions (YT) network currently assisting over 6,600 young people each year. We estimate this will assist an additional 2,600 school leavers directly into employment or back to school each year.
Labour will provide $87m for getting 9,000 unemployed young New Zealanders off the unemployment benefit and into apprenticeships with a $8,727 (the equivalent of the dole payment) subsidy to employers willing to offer a permanent full-time job.
Labour will Provide an additional 5,000 fees-free training places for 16 and 17 year olds over 3 years, including 1,000 that have a Māori mentoring element and 1000 with a Pasifika mentoring element.
Provide an additional 1,000 places over the next three years allocated to group apprenticeships, shared apprenticeships and public service cadets. (more here)

Not set out on their website.

Māku Rā Pea: Every Māori organisation will be asked t0 give two of our young people a job. Based on current projections of 5843 Māori organisations, this will provide 11686 rangatahi with employment.
To help facilitate this goal, Te Puni Kōkiri will be reoriented towards an employment drive, and a focus on Whānau Ora.
We will establish internships, voluntary work and other vocational development including specialised programmes run jointly by employers and schools.
Each school-leaver will be mentored by Work Brokers, to enable them to graduate with a plan which prepares them for employment including possible career opportunities and tertiary study options.
We will focus on sectors with the biggest skills shortages: healthcare, infrastructure, finance and green energy, recognising that green energy developments will open up jobs that don’t exist now.
We will establish youth councils with statutory advisory roles in city and regional councils; and initiate a national summit for rangatahi.
We will investigate the establishment of rangatahi rangatira – Māori youth leadership ‘colleges’ to better inform Government policy.(more here)

Not set out on their website.

Encourage all young people under 25 who are noat at school to either be 'earning or learning' (i.e. in some form of education/training or work). (more here)

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11 Comments

by KevinMcMenamin | 9th Sep 11, 3:16pm 1315538204

would be interested to see an estimated cost attached to each party's policy and then you could keep a running total of net extra spending that a country overspending by $15bn a year would have to commit to..

by skudiv | 9th Sep 11, 4:58pm 1315544332

Yeah, and then compare it to bailing out, bondholders and insurance companies.

by Kunst | 9th Sep 11, 5:26pm 1315545970

I’m puzzled, why topics about NZyouth hardly make any entries – part of a forgotten generation will costly for our society.

by LloydM1 | 9th Sep 11, 7:50pm 1315554607

Tragic to see, hear & know just what is happening to NZ & why. It wont stop me from trying to do my bit to help, but it is not a nice position to be in to understand that things are going to get very much worse...

I wonder when the penny will drop for the masses?

by Al R | 9th Sep 11, 9:33pm 1315560797

Hence why I decided on a move to Australia for the family...

by Steptoe | 10th Sep 11, 9:35am 1315604121

The have lost the plot..

This country needs skilled trades people...

This country needs an education system that produces kids with good work etics and basic skills to move straight from colledge into apprencieships....not pre training BS that just ends up a useless rort on the taxpayer, and covers yemporality unemployment figure.

Get retired and retiring tradesmen back in our schools by removing the BS that goes along with getting them there

Get PC OSH BS out of the workshop and get these kids learning real skills to be preped for appreniceship.

Service industries and construcyion at the moment is in a down turn...go oppurtinty for tradesmen to teach skills to appreniceships, but they dont have the turnover to take them on....currently the kids are on benifits and stuff....subistise the employer gerneraslly

Have the apprenceship boards over sea (as they currently do) the young apprenices work etics, study patterns, if they dont shape up...warning, 3 rd time they are out..no unemployment or benifit for 6 month or yr...Then they have a another 2nd change if/when they realis they blew the opportuniy of a life time (I know quite young ppl in this catergory...now excellent candiates to make excellent apprences.. in the 20 to 23 age gruop)

Get the theme that goes right thru our education system that book work, computers and degrees are the goal......Get kids who work with their hands making building stuff, sheds, hot rods, ..no more idle hands making the devels work, solve a huge part of the bulling issues, and turn these same potentual street kids into our top tradesmen and small business owners....

Think about it, those 'dumbies" who when Goff went to Papatoetoe High school, these days end up as no hoper street gang kids...back then under 'technical teachers' tought them how to use their hands......now these same people own the mechanical workshops, engineering , construction, electrical business.

Think about it the leaky building issues....caused by educated PHd people who knew therory and no pratical experiance...and took no notice of the tradesmen who went to school with Goff....talk to any of those guys back then , they saw what was going to happen....The trouble was we scraped the education systenm that worked for centuries, scraped the appreniceship system, shortage of good tradesmen and the PHd guys swayed the day...result a billion dollar screw up.....once most of the old guys had retired.

I realy fail to understand how Goff can get things so bloody screwed up considering his early education, the families and friends we grew up with...or has this Labour Man completely lost his roots of understanding.

by Kunst | 10th Sep 11, 12:58pm 1315616325

What appears to be slightly off topic, has in fact a lot to do with this NZyouth issue.

Governments, which do not have comprehensive, long term economic strategies for decades, working together with the NZprivate sectors.

But it was the rail system that caused most of the night's problems. Frustrated passengers at Britomart station began chanting, "We want trains, we want trains", as they waited.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10750742

It shows again how much trouble it can cause and how much money societies are losing, when a government allows orders been planned and executed by overseas / companies/ skillful and experienced workforces. Supply/ services in energy, telecommunication and transport aren’t professional enough by Kiwis, need the expertise of foreigners, to an extent that we aren’t independent and even puts our national security is at risk.

Minister Steven Joyce and a few others should be sacked.

PM – why do we have in this country youth education programs costing taxpayers money millions, when there are no decent jobs and our youngsters are forced to move overseas ?

by Steptoe | 10th Sep 11, 4:19pm 1315628361

Funny u mention the railways...once one of the biggest youth training centers for tradesmen in NZ....then they sold the railways, Private enterprise striped out the assets, like the Otahuhu yards and doong so closed one of the best trades training operations in the history of NZ...Cabinet makers, electricans, engineers, mechanics , carpenters , just to namea few.....All in the name of saving money......now Sth Auckland has a huge social problem...and youth unemployment.

And Government are talking. proposing to set up training units....theroty not practical....hands on.

by Kunst | 10th Sep 11, 4:32pm 1315629139

A number of ministers underperforming, should be sacked instantly.

Interesting, what people have to say:

If the trains were built in New Zealand for the purpose of New Zealand you might have seen less chaos and a better system on the tracks. LOL - that's all the nz engineers can say to the government on this one. What goes around comes around - or in the manufacturing of Chinese trains what goes around . . . . whoops didn't start!

Disconnect emergency buttons on trains and plus a security guard in each train carriage. *Special note; borrow a few billion and fix the train system once and for all instead of patching up and carrying out token upgrades.

I work on Queen St and experience problems with the trains on a consistent basis

im not surprised at all. ive been catching the train to uni/ work for the past 6 years and it always has these problems- major delays or services cancelled due to signal failures ,engine faults

that's because NZ IS a third world country

But yes a transport muckup. That's what happens after decades of Auckland tax money being used to subsidise transport in the rest of the country - decisions made by Wellington bureaucrats.

Maybe about time the Government listens to Auckland's cries for investment in the public transport system, including the rail loop. First world city with a third world public transport system. The current trains were built last century and Auckland got them when Perth upgraded their trains in the early 90's

The failings of the system last night are attributable to Labour and the left wing rabble. It's a result of their "tax the rich (hard working and educated) and give to the poor (lazy and uneducated with a sense of entitlement)" policies. Highly skilled people worth employing (including rail managers) have left the country. Get rid of the doll (and the dropkicks it creates), drop taxes on the rich (bringing good, honest hard working kiwis back). Then we can rebuild this great country.

Its Rogernomics from the 80's coming back to bite us , when Nats sold the Railways and everything else instead of investing in basic transport infrastructure , this situation may not of happened ... you look anywhere overseas and most "on to it" countries have a affordable functional rail transport system , given the increase in the price of oil and its inevitable decline in its availability , NZ should be moving towards a National rail transport systems linking all of the major centers

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/fan-central/5600036/Transport-chaos-for-rugby-fans?comment_msg=posted#post_comment

Governments, which let down the manufacturing sector, do not understand economics and how to make societies prosper - NZ is a classical - shame on you.

by Kunst | 12th Sep 11, 8:40am 1315773645

Minister Steven Joyce – what a loser.

That’s what’s happening in western society when government grow to powerful – ministers who should be sacked, in charge of investigations of their own mistakes and failures for years.

What we need in this country is a public transportation system, which is planned, constructed, build and manufactured almost entirely here in New Zealand with the help of foreign professionals. Professionalism - e.g. accuracy can only be achieved, by solid workmanship, skill, technical & logistical knowledge and not by importing most everything.

by Kunst | 12th Sep 11, 10:08pm 1315822085

No economic sense by the government.

….and to finish that topic I ask you guys, many probably agree with Minister S. Joyce, saying it is cheaper to purchase overseas, but....

How much more revenue for the government would be generated, having a wider skilful and knowledgeable NZworkforce working in the production sector ? A prospers, full employed society would benefit the government with less worries and expenses for beneficiaries, police force, prisons and would add a massive increase in tax revenue.

Allocating infrastructure needs to overseas workforces means – the money goes out of NZ – lost revenue – lost employment - lost skill and knowlege – lost prosperity - pure stupidity by the government.