The council has secured $99,000 from the Mayors Taskforce for Jobs (MTFJ) community employment programme — a nationwide partnership between Local Government New Zealand and the Ministry of Social Development.
The programme focuses on getting young people into sustainable employment, highlighting the power of localism, while promoting community-led solutions for youth employment, education and training.
Central Otago Mayor Tim Cadogan said after seeing the success in other parts of the country, he was "delighted" to see the initiative come to the district.
"Our council knows the issues in our community, the organisations and businesses equipped to help, and we now have the funding to put our plans into action. We are grateful for the funding to establish this pilot."
As of May last year, the MTFJ programme had placed more than 5000 young people into work across the country since its inception in 2020.
The Central Otago pilot has a target of securing 11 young people into employment during the next seven months.
A co-ordinator will work one-on-one with the young people to support them into employment.
Funding is also available to help them access training or equipment needed to gain employment.
Council economic development manager Nick Lanham said the next step was to appoint a local co-ordinator to connect Central Otago youth with permanent roles.
He looked forward to expressions of interest.
