Helping Clutha businesses find and keep staff, but also guiding jobseekers into paid work, will be the key aims of a new Clutha labour market strategy project that will take shape over the next 18 months.
A contract, thought to be worth about $103,000, will be signed soon to seal the deal, and allow the Clutha District Council and Enterprise Clutha to start protecting local jobs, as the region braces for the fallout from the economic recession.
Details of the strategy will be outlined to council district development board members this afternoon.
In the council's application for the contract, it said Clutha had undergone several business and labour market changes in the past six to eight years with the growth of the dairy industry, the opening of the Otago Corrections Facility and small rural townships becoming popular tourist drawcards.
The strategy would help the council and Enterprise Clutha develop a way to "break down barriers to rural and urban Clutha residents finding work, while helping businesses retain and attract staff", the report said.
Ministry of Social Development funds will enable the groups to employ a worker to perform several tasks over the coming months.
That person's duties will include the development and implementation of initiatives identified in the strategy, the identification of employment and pre-employment services available to young people, and the strengthening of links between education providers and businesses.
The report says the strategy will target two key markets - businesses and jobseekers.
More details of the strategy are expected to be announced once a formal agreement is signed.
