Collaboration on education scheme

Otago Polytechnic is using the region's "hometown advantage" - its strong existing educational networks - to ensure young people can be slotted into places on the Government's new Youth Guarantee scheme.

Funding for the 84 Otago Polytechnic places on the scheme was only confirmed in November.

Staff will begin interviewing applicants next month.

Despite the haste required, there was buy-in from all sectors of the educational community to make the scheme work, marketing, communication and customer relations general manager Mike Waddell said.

Contacts being tapped included secondary-school principals, private training providers such as the Methodist Mission's Approach employment and training programmes, the Malcam Trust and the (Dunedin) Mayor's Taskforce for Jobs group.

"That is our hometown advantage, I think; that we all work closely together already and are doing so again now. We realise we have to work collaboratively so young people who fit the criteria have a high chance of engaging with the programme and getting a successful outcome."

Otago Polytechnic's Youth Guarantee students will be under the care of staff member Marc Doesburg, who runs the foundation studies department.

Adding a new group of students would not be difficult, he said, as the department already catered for about 170 full-time equivalent students annually, ranging in age from 16 to 45.

Most were refugees and migrants wanting to learn English, young people wanting a start in tertiary education, or adults returning to education after a period away.

The department already placed a strong emphasis on a range of skills such as literacy, numeracy, study skills, critical analysis, problem-solving, work experience, interview skills and self-development, and that would flow through to the Youth Guarantee students, Mr Doesburg said.

Youth Guarantee applicants would be interviewed in person so tailored courses could be organised for them.

If no polytechnic course was suitable, they would be referred to other educational providers to ensure they remained in education or training, he said.

It was expected some of the Youth Guarantee students would be enrolled in standard programmes such as cookery, business administration, horticulture and automotive engineering, while others would be placed in general or trades introductory study programmes.

All learning would be "very practical, very hands-on, very project based", Mr Waddell said.

Provided they stayed the course, Youth Guarantee students would gain the qualification they had enrolled in, he said.

"They will go out with a record of achievement and learning. They will have started something and have completed something. They will have shown they are reliable and that they can undertake a commitment. So this is not just about the academic side; it is also about soft-skills development."

The scheme had the support of the Otago Secondary Principals Association, president Philip Craigie said.

It was "not rocket science and not a totally new idea", he said, but he expected it would benefit a few pupils from every Dunedin and Central Otago secondary school.

"We've got to into this in a positive way . . . We realise it might help some disaffected young people who might otherwise fall out of education."

 

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Youth Guarantee scheme

- Government funding for spaces at polytechnics for 16- and 17-year-olds who have not succeeded in the secondary school system.

- Students may still be at school, or have recently left school.

- Students must not have achieved NCEA level 2 qualification.

- 2000 places nationally next year; 84 at Otago Polytechnic.

- Otago planning for up to 54 students at Dunedin campus and 30 at Cromwell.

- Intakes planned for February and March, and possibly mid-year.

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