Three more leading Auckland businesses have signed up to grow their future workforce and become youth employment pledge partners with Auckland Council.

At a signing event in Orewa last week hosted by Mayor Len Brown, established local businesses AWF, Wharehine and G.J. Gardner Homes Rodney committed to supporting Auckland’s growth and employing young people.

The three construction and infrastructure businesses have growing youth recruitment and workforce development needs and see the potential to grow their workforces locally. All three have entry-level positions linked to good career pathways and are also already providing support to develop their young workers – ranging from coaching to training towards recognised qualifications.

As youth employer pledge partners these north Auckland-based firms can collaborate with each other and with other leading employers from around the Auckland region.

There are 23,500 young Aucklander’s currently not in employment, education or training and nearly a quarter of Auckland’s young people are unemployed.

The latest available data for Auckland’s northern local boards suggests there are at least 2000 young people in the sub-region currently not in employment, education, or training.[1]

Len Brown said he was very encouraged to see major north Auckland employers stepping up to employ and develop young people.

I’m delighted to see business with their roots in local communities getting on board and making the most of the opportunity to grow their future workforce and reducing costs such as unemployment for us all.”

As employer pledge partners the three firms receive a kitemark logo that identifies them as a quality youth employer. They also gain access to support to tackle common barriers to youth employment, such as finding young people who are work-ready and supporting managers to get the most out of their young workers.

These new pledge partners join seven existing partners: The Warehouse, Veolia, Fletchers Building, InterContinental Hotels Group, SKYCITY Entertainment Group, Hilton Auckland and Auckland Council.More partners are in the pipeline and around 50 leading Auckland employers will have signed – or be ready to sign – by July this year.

The pledge initiative is part of the Tindall Foundation-supported Auckland Council Youth Connections programme. Over the past two years Youth Connections has actively engaged with more than 600 businesses and 3000 young people. As a result more than 850 young people have been supported into employment.

As part of the council’s support to Auckland’s youth employers, three youth employment summits have been held across Auckland. The most recent was JobFest15 at the Manukau Institute of Technology in south Auckland. This event brought together more than 1800 work-ready young people and 50 businesses with 300 vacancies to fill.

Planning is now underway for a north Auckland JobFest15 to match work ready young people and local employers. The north Auckland JobFest15 will be held later this year with local board support.

[1] Source: Household Labour Force Survey, December 2014, Auckland Council. Local Boards include Rodney, Hibiscus and Bays, as well as neighbouring Kaipatiki, and Upper Harbour.