More young people stay on track

We want to provide all young people with opportunities to be challenged, learn new skills and achieve positive outcomes, and to help them to be successful now and in the future. We support young people to play a positive role in their communities to become active citizens with a voice in the decisions that affect them.

Helping young people move into employment or training

Helping youth into work

Over the last year, the number of young people receiving the Unemployment Benefit decreased considerably. In June 2012, 13,114 young people were on unemployment-related benefits compared to 16,363 in June 2011 – a drop of nearly 20 per cent.

Youth are a key focus for us. To ensure young people continue to move into employment or training, we implemented new youth-focused programmes and built on existing ones. In 2011, the Government invested $55 million in a Youth Employment Package to provide 13,000 places for young people in employment and training over the next four years. This enabled us to run several youth-focused programmes including:

• The Job Ops with Training programme, which pays a subsidy of up to $5,000 to employers to employ a young person. The programme specifically targets those who have been assessed at risk of long-term benefit receipt or who have spent at least 13 weeks on a benefit. This programme will not continue in 2012/2013, but employment support for young people will be available through the new Job Streams package.
• The Limited Service Volunteer programme, which is a six-week residential course that addresses issues such as a lack of motivation or confidence. In partnership with the New Zealand Defence Force, 1,828 young people were successfully referred to courses. After the course, participants received ongoing contact to connect them to work, training or education.

This year 2,276 employers participated in the Job Ops with Training programme which subsidised 2,939 young people.

The Limited Services Volunteer programme focuses on 18 to 24 year olds who have been on a benefit for more than six months.

Youth Transition Services

In 2011/2012, we helped 8,606 young people into employment, training or further education through Youth Transition Services. This is an increase of 3 per cent from last year (8,335). We continued to fund providers to help young people make the transition from school into further education, training or work.

In 2012/2013, a new Youth Service will replace Youth Transition Services. The new Youth Service will provide a more intensive and individualised service to support at-risk young people to complete education, training or work-based learning.

Increase youth engagement

In 2011/2012, we continued to support quality youth development programmes that provided positive community-based opportunities to over 41,100 young people. These programmes included the Duke of Edinburgh’s Hillary Award, Smokefree Rock Quest, Spirit of Adventure Trust, Stage Challenge, Youth Enterprise Trust, Scouts New Zealand and the Connected Media Trust.

Break-Away School Holiday programmes

Break-Away School Holiday programmes provide stimulating, fun and structured holiday activity for young people aged 11 to 17 years who would not normally have access to holiday programmes. Break-Away is delivered in areas that face social and economic disadvantage, to over 28,000 young people through 78 providers.

The Break-Away School Holiday programmes are available at no cost to those who attend.

Supporting young people’s participation in decision-making

In 2011/2012, we delivered 82 workshops across 41 locations to develop young people’s skills in leadership, decision-making, and project and event planning. Over 1,900 young people attended the workshops.

A further 3,330 young people aged 12 to 24 years contributed to one of 14 consultations commissioned by external agencies. These consultations have informed central and local government, as well as communities, on what is important to young people.

Aotearoa Youth Voices Network

The Ministry of Youth Development’s Aotearoa Youth Voices Network consists of 6,457 young people aged 12 to 24 years. Network members have had the opportunity to represent other young people at key events and activities.

The Ministry of Youth Development’s National Youth Advisory Group comprises young people from across New Zealand. Members play a leading role in the provision of youth support and advice to central and local government on the development and implementation of resources and initiatives for young people. This year a member from the Canterbury region was appointed to the Community Forum advising the Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery on recovery efforts.

In 2011/2012, one network member represented New Zealand at the United Nations Rio+20 Conference.

Prime Minister’s Youth Programme

The Prime Minister’s Youth Programme fosters and celebrates the achievements of young people who have overcome adversity to make good life choices. In January 2012, 100 young people from south and west Auckland who were at risk of poor social outcomes participated in the week-long programme.

The programme gave the participants the opportunities to engage in a number of sport and art activities, including climbing the Auckland Harbour Bridge, training with the Warriors, and a makeover session with New Zealand’s Next Top Model host Sara Tetro. Other celebrity mentors involved with the programme included Oliver Driver, Elemeno P, Eroni Clarke, and 2010 New Zealand’s Next Top Model winner Danielle Hayes.

The participants can be nominated by community leaders, school teachers and youth aid officers, after improving academic performance or reducing behaviours such as truancy or low-level offending.

Student services made easy

By 30 June 2012, over 137,000, or 72 per cent of students with current loans or allowances were receiving their StudyLink correspondence online.

Students completed over 2.3 million transactions in their MyStudyLink accounts in 2011/2012. Students can now also receive and accept Student Loan contracts online, making the contract process faster for over 106,000 students.

In 2011, a student interactive programme called Sussed was launched. Sussed provides information to students in Years 12 and 13 to help them plan and understand the costs they will face while studying. The programme is available online.

Our Sussed programme was presented to over 32,000 students at 577 high schools throughout New Zealand in 2011/2012.

The future

Our work to deliver against this outcome in 2011/2012 has positioned us well to co-ordinate the cross-sector response to achieve Better Public Services Result 1: Reduce the number of people who have been on a working-age benefit for more than 12 months.

We will also contribute to Better Public Services Result 5: Increase the proportion of 18 year olds with NCEA level 2 or equivalent qualification and Better Public Services Result 10: New Zealanders can complete their transactions with the Government easily in a digital environment.

2011–2014 Statement of Intent Performance Indicators

More young people stay on track