YES Project Manager: Jay Haerewa
The Youth Employment Success team has achieved so much this year, and it is thanks to our fantastic employers, teachers, youth organisations and the wider community; it's truly amazing what a little Whanaungatanga and Manaakitanga can achieve.
In the first half of 2022, we delivered our first-ever digital job fair with 500+ attendees across two days and over a dozen guest speakers, including our incredible YES employers! The event even took home an award for social impact at Australia's Good Design Awards.
We were guest speakers at the annual YEP conference sharing the YES kaupapa and the importance of collaboration in the Youth Employment space. We even appeared on the YEA lunch bite webinar series.
We introduced the platform to job seekers at the Connected Job Expo held at Westland District Library alongside MSD and Te Pūkenga.
We were hosted by Otago Girls Highschool Careers Advisor Robyn Bazika at the classroom by the sea to share the YES kaupapa with their Fast Forward students introducing them to a bunch of incredible youth-friendly employers via www.youthemployer.nz (they even made us pancakes). Then we were invited back to give a presentation to the Y10 students on the employment-based opportunities available in Ōtepoti.
We presented at the Ōtepoti Youth Space, coordinated by the incredible team at INNOV8HQ & Mana Rangatahi.
We had a stall at the Options 2022 Otago Pop-up Job Shop held at the Glenroy auditorium and shared our platform with loads of incredible job seekers.
We attended the Empower Coding & Esports Festival held in Marlborough. There were guest speakers, specialist workshops, exhibitions and esports tournaments. The event provided opportunities for rangatahi to explore pathways into further study and employment across various businesses and industries.
Our national Programme Manager Jay Haerewa joined the Ōtepoti Youth Vision Partnership Group; check out the vision in the gallery below.
We sponsored the Rangatahi Rumble & Otago E-Sports Brawl held in Dunedin at the Kavanagh High School Auditorium in collaboration with Duncan Trickey (Otago Girls High School), Your Corps & The Insert Coin to Play Charitable Trust.
We took out the Māori Business award at the Grand Business South Awards.
The award recognises a business that successfully incorporates Māori identity and Tikanga as part of its business operation.
We also welcomed a bunch of fantastic new employers on board the YES waka from across the motu.
Development West Coast, Clocktower Café, Seven Penny, Tai Poutini Polytechnic, Paroa Hotel, Masterlink, McConnell Dowell, and Sanford Ltd.
And, of course, most importantly, we supported our incredible opportunity seekers to engage with employers throughout the regions to gain work experience and build their employment skills.
We'll be back again after the Holiday break; 2023 is already shaping up to be another fantastic year.
Hari hararei from Jay & the YES Team.
