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Marlborough’s careers expo has been hailed a success for another year, but questions remain over how the expo should be funded.
The Marlborough District Council remain Future of Work’s principal sponsor after councillors today (Thursday) voted to commit $24,000 for next year’s event.
The funding would be made up of the council’s usual $10,000 grant, plus an extra $14,000 that had gone to the now-defunct Graeme Dingle Foundation, which used to run the event.
Council community partnerships adviser Jodie Griffiths told councillors that 2027 would be the last year the council would give the extra $14,000 directly to the event, as those funds would be absorbed into a new Community Impact Fund in 2028.
A total of 1615 college students and 350 whānau had attended Future of Work 2026 in June, connecting with 80 employers across 37 industries and 7 tertiary providers, Jodie said.
Feedback from students, businesses, and whanau had been largely positive with 89 per cent of businesses rating it four out of five or higher.
The council’s contribution made up almost half of the about $53,000 raised for Future of Work 2026.
The rest was covered by sponsors Port Marlborough, Top of the South Trades Academy, Top of the South Foundation, Blenheim South Rotary, REAP Marlborough, NMIT, and Redwood Trust.
The tertiary providers had paid an entry fee of $200 each, raising another $1700, and Rapid Relief Team had catered the event free of charge.
In the end, the event cost about $40,000 to put on, Jodie said.
But getting sponsors for 2027 was not looking as promising. So far, only Top of the South Foundation had committed to sponsoring next year’s event, but would contribute $2000 less, she said.
Port Marlborough had confirmed it would not be sponsoring for 2027.
Jodie confirmed that between the council contributions, the foundation’s sponsorship, and the about $13,000 left over from 2026, they would have enough for the event to go ahead next year.
Councillor David Croad said while he supported the event, he questioned whether the council putting up the “lion’s share” of the funding was sustainable.
David noted that the colleges and wider education system had not contributed any money to Future of Work.
Jodie said the colleges’ careers budgets were “very small” and were mainly put towards employing careers advisors.
David said he wondered whether the 80 employers who had attended could be convinced to pay a small fee in the future.
“They attend trade shows and ... they have significant marketing budgets, and I see that this is investing in their future and their businesses as well,” he said.
But councillor Brian Dawson said attending the event was already “quite an investment” for a business, which had to design an activity, then pay staff to attend for at least eight hours.
A business Brain had spoken to had been hesitant to attend as they “had to take a day off and not actually deal with [their] clients for a whole day”.
An extra $100 charge, while reasonable, might turn some smaller businesses off attending, he said.
Councillor Barbara Faulls said the tertiary providers were being “slightly stingy” by only paying $200 for entry when they paid more to attend other events.
“We have a lot of students from here that go to Canterbury and Otago.. I would imagine that we could put a little bit of pressure on them to actually up the ante,” she said.
Jodie said the $200 charge was a precedent dating back to when careers expos were hosted by Marlborough Boys’ College.
“They of course will say that they have no further money,” she added.
Jodie suggested Future of Work could just “be a bit brave” and increase the tertiary entry fee and “see what the response is”.
“[For tertiary providers] promoting in Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch is not the target market as much as these rural children who must travel if they want a degree or higher.”
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
