Mayor Liz McMillan is thanking the district’s employers for getting behind the Mayors Taskforce for Jobs programme, with 50 job-seekers offered work in the past eight months.

The national taskforce is all about helping young people into jobs and Mayor Liz is one of 17 provincial mayors supporting the programme.

“The programme in Ashburton is co-ordinated by Sharon Watson here at Council and since July last year she has arranged for 27 people on a benefit to be placed into work, as well as 13 young people not in education, employment or training.

“Our target was 35 for the whole year, so I really want to thank those local employers and businesses out there for stepping up, whether it has been to offer seasonal or full-time work.”

Young people were placed into jobs in the building industry, in hospitality, and in the agricultural and horticultural sectors.

Building company McIntosh Group has taken on several employees, who first came to them through the programme.

Managing Director John McIntosh said the employees had progressed into permanent roles and were now undertaking apprenticeships through BCITO.

“They all came to us prepared by Sharon for the realities of working in the construction sector and she does an excellent job of supporting them and helping them understand expectations around attitude, work ethic and reliability.”

Mr McIntosh said the taskforce’s programme was a valuable initiative that helped connect motivated young people with meaningful employment opportunities, while ensuring employers received candidates who were well prepared for the workforce.”

Kelvin Lysaght, who runs a consulting structural engineering company, said he’d been working with the taskforce for six weeks and had taken on one worker.

He offered a civil engineering technician position, where the employee would learn how to undertake geotechnical soil field testing and computer-aided design drawing skills, related to structural engineering.

“Sharon identified the right type of person, suitable for the role in my business.”

If you want to know more about the Mayors Taskforce For Jobs, please get in touch with Sharon.Watson@adc.govt.nz