Regional stakeholders, partners and projects | Te huka whaipāka mē kā kaupapa mahi
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There are a number of key stakeholders involved in the development and delivery of this RWP.
Just Transition
A just transition is a strategy to help a region lead its own planning and ensure the impacts and opportunities arising from the transition are evenly distributed. A just transition process recognises there are many communities and perspectives in a region. The Southland Murihiku Just Transition Work Plan will help our region build its economic, environmental and social resilience through and beyond the expected closure of NZAS Tīwai Point. Just Transition partners in Southland Murihiku include:
- Iwi
- Local government
- Education providers
- Business representatives
- Workers (represented by unions)
- Community organisations
- Central government
- The primary sector
The Southland Murihiku RWP is working alongside Just Transition workstreams including:
- Energy
- Aquaculture
- Business Transitions
- Worker Transitions
- Community Development and Capability Building
- Land Use
- Long Term Planning
We are working towards aligning the Just Transition and Regional Workforce Plans wherever there are labour market connections and opportunities, particularly where Just Transition priorities act as a bridge towards achieving RSLG actions, and vice versa.
Murihiku Regeneration
Murihiku Regeneration is the coming together of four Papatipu Rūnanga of Murihiku to build a regenerative economy that will support future generations. They are developing the implementation of Te Ara Aukati Kore (pathways without barriers), a capability strategy designed to ensure our local people build the capability needed for emergent labour market and broader social and cultural life opportunities in the region. This kaupapa is designed to allow Murihiku Regeneration to be responsive to whatever labour market contexts emerge in the future. Three areas of focus have been formulated which emphasise a decentering of education, training and social services and instead, place the emphasis on people’s needs and aspirations:
- Education system advocacy; ensuring that education and training provision is responsive to, and enabling of, whānau aspirations.
- Programme delivery partnerships; collaborating to draw together and build on existing programmes and services as a coherent and systematic approach to the development of human capability.
- Pathway planning; ensuring whānau are supported to develop and express their aspirations for work and life, and capture them in a practical, holistic development plan, tailored to their needs and aligned with labour market opportunities.
Within the Just Transition programme, Murihiku Regeneration is leading the Worker Transition workstream. This mahi will align the Just Transition Work Plan to support our people through workplace change using the kaupapa described above.
Southland Youth Futures
Southland Youth Futures is a regional career exploration initiative led by our Regional Development Agency (RDA) Great South. The programme focuses on improving outcomes for the youth of Southland Murihiku and reducing the NEET rate (youth not in education, employment, or training) across the region. Established in 2014, it is part of the Southland Regional Labour Market Strategy. The programme has expanded and extended its reach thanks to a $1.55M Provincial Growth Fund grant received in November 2019.
The programme hosts employer talks in schools, coordinates workplace visits for students, leads the delivery of a Southland Work Ready Passport, and helps to establish connections between students and local employers by encouraging employers to embrace youth-friendly standards in their workplace and invest in the region’s youth. The programme has over 30 Employer Excellence Partners, with plans to increase this to more than 50 over the next two years.
Local projects
Hokonui Huanui
Hokonui Huanui aims to generate shared community responsibility to ensure all tamariki and rakatahi in the Gore District have the skills and wellbeing necessary to transition seamlessly into training and employment. Led by Community Networking Trust (Eastern Southland) Incorporated, the initiative enables services across the district to collaborate, filling gaps where services may be required, to provide improved support through transition periods. A successful application to the Provincial Growth Fund, confirmed in April 2019, secured funding of $2.1M over a three-year period.
Services provided include:
- Navigational support to ensure families/whānau are connected with services, agencies, and the support they need to have positive outcomes.
- Supporting work-readiness of individuals aged 16 – 24, including addressing mental health, resiliency, and other barriers to employment.
- A youth worker service offering a strengths-based, client focused approach to empowering young people, removing barriers and improving advocacy.
- The Youth Employment Success community-based initiative offers rakgatahi/youth the opportunities to upskill to gain confidence in their desired industry.
Southland and Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC)
SOREC was established in 2019 by industry members across Otago and Southland and is supported by funding from the Provincial Growth Fund. The group aims to:
- Collaborate to successfully compete for new work outside of the region.
- Increase capacity and competitiveness through adoption of new technology and methodology such as industry 4.0, automation and robotics.
- Improve the calibre and number of fit-for-purpose regional apprentices through youth trades pathways.
- Advocate for the sector to create conditions for sustainable change.
The SOREC Engineering Academy has expanded in 2022 to address the labour shortages within the engineering sector. This new programme has been introduced to Southland students by including eight Invercargill engineering companies as well as two secondary schools - James Hargest College and Southland Boys High School. The academy allows Year 12 and 13 students to gain real-life experience by visiting different engineering companies. Further growth is expected in 2023.
Murihiku Regeneration: Te Tapu o Tāne Ltd
Te Tapu o Tāne Ltd is an iwi-owned native tree and plant nursery that is undertaking catchment rehabilitation services across Southland Murihiku. It works alongside Kāi Tahu, local government, central government and private partners to commercially provide plant sales, as well as planting and habitat restoration services. With funding sourced from the One Billion Trees programme and Jobs for Nature, it is expected these new nurseries will produce more than 700,000 new native plants and trees each year, employing about 25 kaimahi (workers) during the funding period.
Te Rourou Vodafone Aotearoa Foundation has also funded Te Tapu o Tāne Ltd to run a pilot programme designed from a te ao Māori perspective, focused on engaging rakatahi in employment, skills development, and connection to te taiao (our natural world). Te Tapu o Tāne has also been engaging with the Southern Institute of Technology to create tailor-made courses for nature-based work which would include training in Mātauraka Māori.
Wellbeing support
The need to grow and then maintain workforce wellbeing, mental health and resilience has been a strong and recurrent theme while the RWP was under development. There are several initiatives currently supporting this across Southland Murihiku, such as:
- Southern Health’s Te Hau Toka Southern Lakes Wellbeing Group worked with Great South to establish a new Te Anau-based Community Co-ordinator role to help co-ordinate mental wellbeing initiatives in the Fiordland community (February 2022).
- Farmstrong is a nationwide wellbeing programme for the rural community.
- Southland Rural Support Trust assists rural individuals and their families to get back on their feet following challenging circumstances such as financial, personal, or climatic adverse events.
- GoodYarn is an evidence-based, peer-delivered mental health literacy programme for the workplace – both rural and urban.