A breakfast for employers and educators is being held this month to come up with a way to encourage Waitaki’s “bright young people” to stay in the district.

A number of organisations are coming together to deliver the Pathways Leadership Breakfast at Ōamaru's Brydone Hotel on Tuesday, August 15.

Waitaki District Council business and enterprise growth lead Rebecca Finlay said the breakfast is to bring industry and school leaders together to identify, discuss and create opportunities to more closely connect local businesses with schools and school students.

Involved are the Ministry of Education Te Mahau, Stronger Waitaki, Business South’s My Next Move, Connected, the Otago Regional Skills Leadership Group, New Zealand School Trustees Association, Mayors’ Taskforce for Jobs, and the Tertiary Education Commission.

“Everybody’s come in on the initiative because there’s a need, and it's wonderful to have so many organisations,” Rebecca said.

The breakfast is helping to further a Government initiative for education - the statement of National Education and Learning Priorities (NELP) - that outlines the priorities for education across all sectors in New Zealand. 

It is made up of five objectives, and number 4 is to “collaborate with industries and employers to ensure learners/ ākonga have the skills, knowledge and pathways to succeed in work”, Rebecca said.

“It basically says that there’s an obligation for schools to connect with local business and build strong relationships with local business, to amplify pathways from school into employment, that’s fit for purpose.

“Basically bridging the gap between school teachers - not just career guidance - so there isn’t that kind of single point of interaction - it’s the bringing together and creating verocity, I suppose, between institutions - the schools, and business.”

Similar events had been run in Canterbury and Dunedin, and Rebecca said she hoped this event would build on those initiatives and learn from the feedback they had received.

Speakers lined up for the event represent a broad variety of sectors, and include Stefan Roesch from Film Otago Southland, talking about how the film industry is trying create pathways, to “upskill a creative workforce to fit demand”.

“So everytime there’s a production that’s on, they’re kind of buddying up experienced lighting people with lighting interns, and then they do the project with them and then they’re qualified,” Rebecca said.

“Another example of that is Workforce Central Dunedin, who are in charge of developing a workforce to staff the Dunedin Hospital build. And then of course, that’s got significant knock-on effects, because then suddenly in and around Dunedin - and I’m including Waitaki in there - we’ve got heaps of skilled contractors and subcontractors that can then be turned to other things, like the Event Centre, for example.

“Then we’ve got some sector representation in the primary industries as well, because that’s such a key component to our Waitaki economy.”

Invitations to the breakfast have been sent to industry leaders across the Waitaki district, teachers from each high school, and teachers from schools with intermediate-aged pupils, as well as some board members from those schools as well.

“We basically need them to register and look forward to hosting them,” Rebecca said.

The Dunedin event ended with a sort of call to action of “this is how to continue to build and strengthen relationships between schools and industry leaders and businesses”, she said.

This is a “kickstart” to building the relationships, and further breakfasts may be run in the same format that are more “sector specific”.

“Depending on where the appetite, interest and focus is.”

The hope is businesses and schools will seize the opportunity to partner up and things like student site visits and summer holiday job opportunities will eventuate, Rebecca said.

“This is the opener, sort of a mixer, which will hopefully lead to people establishing relationships that have other outcomes.

“All of our sectors are short staffed, and we historically have a pattern of our bright young people leaving the region . . . That could be because they’re not aware of the career pathways available to them.”

Tertiary education in a classic university setting can be seen as the pinnacle and “ultimate outcome” for a school leaver, but there are a lot of different paths young people can take, she said.

“We want to make sure that the schools are aware of the full plethora of opportunities available to young people.”