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Helping "improve our skills for the future" - Accelerating Aotearoa's "Auckland Plan" Submission

Date: June 15, 2011
To support the Auckland Plan's priorities around skills and youth, Accelerating Aotearoa has developed a powerful engagement framework to improve success rates in education and enable pathways to skilled and inspiring careers for Maori and Pacific youth.
“Accelerating Aotearoa Talent” (AAT) works with educators and communities along with both the private and public sectors to support talented young people into exciting and well paid careers. The overarching principal for delivery is having engaged families on the programme.
AAT’s Pilot in 2010 has already connected with 14 schools in the Auckland region – 12% of the 118 low decile schools targeted by our programme. Within a 5 year period AAT will connect with all of Auckland’s 118 low decile schools.
AAT is delivered in 3 phases:
LINKING-UP: Connecting with schools, families and talent
TURNING-UP: Communities connecting with tertiaries, businesses and role models
FOLLOWING-UP: Helping families and communities understand the education system and supporting youth into skilled work; Mentoring Programmes, Scholarship Workshops, Services & Information workshops.
AAT uses fresh approaches to enabling young people to unleash the aptitude current systems sometimes miss. Critical components of the programme include:
Establishing the link between education & well-being: A productive and prosperous New Zealand is increasingly contingent on the productivity and prosperity of all New Zealanders. Enhancing outcomes for all New Zealanders is critical and education is the foundation.
Getting the right education for skilled & high income jobs: While Maori and Pacific continue to be disproportionately represented in low and unskilled jobs it is clear that the pathways to skilled work are not being accessed for this talent. Work must be done to ensure pathways are established for rangatahi to transition smoothly from school to tertiary education and on to skilled work. Our young people, and their families, need support and help to make this transition effectively
Working together to get results: In order to support Maori and Pacific peoples to gain the knowledge and skills necessary to achieve, a framework must be established to enable a connected and managed approach.
Integral to the programme are the focus on:
  • Exposure & discovery of growth or emergent industry careers: The jobs, pathways, role modelling and mentoring
  • Achievement of success in tertiary education & employment: Choices, the journey, completion
  • Admission to lifelong skills & training: From childhood to work & entrepreneurship
  • Access to highly paid careers: Improved economic & social outcomes
AAT’s programme delivery is led by project steering groups comprising Maori and Pacific business, government and community leaders. In 2010 the programme focused on Pacific youth partnered with the Pacific Islands Chamber of Commerce (PacificBiz), Trades@School, the C-Me Mentoring Trust, Careers NZ and Taro Pages with funding from Auckland City Council, Manukau City Council and Waitakere City Council. The programme was nominated in the Legacy Plans of those Councils.
From 2011 a programme focusing on rangatahi has been added. Maori Participation is championed through the Matatau Maori Business Centre Trust and Network with the aim to connect Maori talent and the job market through networks of role models and likeminded organizations,
The establishment of the Auckland Council is a unique opportunity to take a coordinated approach to the delivery of programmes with demonstrated capability to support the regional imperatives articulated in the Auckland Plan.
Accelerating Aotearoa’s Talent has unique capability to support Council's priorities on collaborative skills development and empowering our future leaders.