2. TIM MACINDOE (National—Hamilton West) Link to this
to the Minister for Social Development and Employment
How can employers, organisations and groups access the recently announced Jobs Ops and Community Max schemes?
Hon PAULA BENNETT (Minister for Social Development and Employment) Link to this
The calls have been flooding in. Groups of employers with entry-level employment or volunteering opportunities can call Work and Income and get young people into those roles really quickly. If they meet the simple criteria for Job Ops, we can pay up to 50 percent of their wages for those 6-month opportunities. For Community Max we will pay the minimum wage for 30 hours a week to get projects done in people’s towns and communities. I encourage employers and community groups to give Work and Income a call on 0800 778008.
Hon PAULA BENNETT Link to this
We have had calls from all over New Zealand, and here are just a few: a dairy farm in Feilding, a concrete company in Tauranga, and a transport company in the South Island. We have even had employers who have called about Job Ops and who have gone on to list several other vacancies in their business with Work and Income. I am really pleased that employers are listing more vacancies with us, realising the high calibre of people and broad skill set that Work and Income can provide. Recently we had a guy in his fifties at one of our Canterbury Work and Income branches who was looking for work, and—I kid you not—within 10 minutes he had a job with a company down the road.
Hon PAULA BENNETT Link to this
On day three of the youth opportunities package we have had a total of 130 phone calls to the employer line for Job Ops and Community Max, and 10 registrations of interest from community groups about the Community Max programme. And we have 47 Job Ops positions ready to go on our books on just the third day. Young people are stepping up in their droves asking for those opportunities.
Hon Annette KingCan the Minister give a guarantee that the two young people she said had already been placed into jobs—one as a factory worker and one as a cafe assistant—have been filled from totally new positions and not existing vacancies, because, according to the rules she put out at the weekend, pre-existing vacancies are not eligible for Job Ops?
Hon PAULA BENNETT Link to this
It is my understanding that those employers called in on Monday with those jobs, that they were matched on the Monday and people were placed in them, and that on Tuesday they started the job. That is my understanding of how it happened.