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Issue No 28, 4 December 2000
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Contents:
Canterbury Youth Employment Strategy Launched
A new Youth Strategy for Canterbury which will see the Department of Work and Income (DWI) targeting 16-24 year olds to ensure that they make a successful transition from school to employment and/or further education and training was launched by Social Services and Employment Minister Steve Maharey last week.
The strategy will focus particularly on better case management for those aged 18 and 19 year old on the Department's books and will be jointly managed by the Canterbury Development Corporation (CDC) and DWI. The Agreement follows an approach to the Government earlier this year from the CDC to build on the existing Actionworks Youth Employment Service.
Key features of the programme are:
- DWI will provide Case Managers within each Service Centre who have a dedicated Youth caseload (approximately 13 case managers);
- CDC will contribute their expertise in working with youth towards the development of DWI Youth Case Managers;
- DWI will provide a Work Broker who holds the Youth portfolio to work in tandem with Youth Case Managers and CDC, so ensuring a more seamless interface in job matching;
- DWI will continue to dedicate 4 staff to the CDC Actionworks programme and CDC will continue to dedicate four staff to the programme as Youth Employment Specialists;
- DWI will operate a jointly administered Youth initiative fund in partnership with CDC to the value of $100,000;
- the DWI evaluation unit will undertake on-going monitoring of the success of the programme; and,
- DWI and CDC will work together to develop a funding bid for the Youth Strategy for Canterbury to be considered in the next Budget round.
New Funding For Adult Literacy Programmes
An additional $2 million is being invested into adult literacy for the calendar year 2001, Associate Education Minister Lianne Dalziel announced last week.
Speaking at a two-day National Literacy Hui in Wellington, Lianne Dalziel stressed the importance of establishing and sustaining a sense of direction and purpose in the literacy area. Effectively resourcing and co-ordination of all the components of the system is important to deliver results. $1.5m of the new funding will be focussed on workplace literacy programmes and increasing professional development available for literacy teachers and quality assurance of the programmes.
In addition, $600,000 will be focused on Maori and Pacific literacy programmes, and $160,000 focussed on literacy initiatives for those whose first language is not English. $25,000 has been set aside to resource the Hui, and initiatives to come out of it. The funding puts on track some of the issues being addressed within the adult literacy strategy currently under development.
Updating New Zealand's Child Legal Framework
There are many advantages to be gained from updating New Zealand's legal framework around the care, custody and guardianship of children, Social Services and Employment Minister Steve Maharey told a children's rights symposium last week. Mr Maharey was in Hamilton to address the Symposium on Children's Needs, Rights and Welfare Developing Strategies for the 'Whole Child' in the 21st Century at the University of Waikato.
A report produced by the Law Commission earlier this year on New Zealand's adoption law recommended the development of a unified piece of legislation that states the responsibilities of parenthood and rights of children. This would enable the bringing together under one act all issues relating to the care, custody and guardianship of children, within a unified framework reflecting the central place of children.
Advantages include:
- demonstrating a shared commitment to children and families;
- being simpler and more rational for families to access and for children and young people to understand and participate in;
- providing a clear framework that is aligned to United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Treaty of Waitangi and the Government's goals for child and family policy; and
- being inquisitorial in its orientation rather than adversarial, and focused on achieving resolutions wherever possible.
The current provisions for the care, custody and guardianship of children are scattered through five different pieces of legislation developed over the past 45 years.
Work And Income Regional Plans Released This Week
Regional flexibility plans for each of the Department of Work and Income's thirteen regions are being released this coming Wednesday.
An increased focus on employment and greater regional flexibility were the key recommendations springing from the Ministerial Inquiry into the Department of Work and Income (the Hunn Report).
Apprenticeship Training Bill Reported Back
The Apprenticeship Training Bill, which provides for the nationwide roll-out from 1 January 2001 of the Government's the Modern Apprenticeship programme, has been reported back from the Education and Science Select Committee and began its second reading in Parliament last week.
Changes have been suggested by the Select Committee to:
- require Skill New Zealand to have regard to the desirability of avoiding unnecessary duplication of effort with an existing ITO before contracting an apprenticeship coordinator;
- reflect the new industrial relations framework;
- put in place protections for Modern Apprentices to ensure that they can complete their training if problems with their employment and training relationships arise;
- assist young Modern Apprentices (those aged 18 years of age and under) to make informed training choices; and,
- ensure that apprenticeship coordinators have particular regard to the needs of those under-represented in industry training (including Maori, pacific peoples, people with disabilities and women).
