Support for youth employment in Waimakariri
From local democracy reporter David Hill:
A Waimakariri youth employment advocate is pleased to see more opportunities for young people.
Former Waimakariri Youth Council co-chairperson Ellie Tizzard is ‘‘excited’’ to hear the Waimakariri District Council has joined the Mayor’s Taskforce for Jobs (MTFJ) programme.
‘‘It is very exciting. I think it will be a good opportunity for local youth and it has worked well in the Hurunui.
‘‘It will be a nice addition to the district.’’
Tizzard has been working with Waimakariri MP Matt Doocey on a youth employment project since 2020 as a Covid-19 initiative.
The idea came out of the Waimakariri Youth Development Strategy, which the youth council worked on in 2018.
The following year Tizzard completed a youth employment survey while serving as Mr Doocey’s Youth MP.
She was recently invited to join the Youth Futures North Canterbury initiative, a partnership between local education providers, the Ministries of Education and Social Development, and the Waimakariri District Council.
‘‘There are so many people who have identified an issue, so it just needs to be narrowed down going forward as a long term sustainable thing.’’
Tizzard and Doocey launched an initiative on Labour Day last year to promote youth employment over the summer holidays.
A website was launched which linked to resources and tips for both employers and young jobseekers: linktr.ee/youthemploymentwaimakariri.
‘‘I’ve had quite a few businesses say they have seen the promotion and seen the information provided alongside it,’’ she said.
‘‘In a way it has made them a bit more confident to take that next step.’’
The pair now planned to roll out a continuous campaign to help connect employers and young people.
They have connected with Enterprise North Canterbury and Tizzard was keen to work alongside the new Waimakakriri MTFJ co-ordinator when appointed.
While figures for the December 2022 quarter were not available yet, the national unemployment rate in the September quarter was 3.3%.
Waimakariri’s unemployment rate in September last year was just 2.4%
The Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment’s Labour Market Force fact sheet, produced in December, found the ‘‘underutilisation rate’’ across New Zealand was 9% for the September quarter.
The underutilisation rate combined unemployment with under-employment - those in part time work, but seeking full time employment.
Tizzard said a high underutilisation rate at a time when employers were struggling to find staff ‘‘highlights a disconnect between jobseekers and employers’’.
‘‘These are pretty surprising statistics in this kind of environment with employers struggling to find people.’’
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Update to Neighbourly members on data breach 06/01/2025 8am
Yesterday in the High Court at Auckland, Neighbourly was successful in being granted an injunction against any unauthorised use of the data taken in a recent breach.
As we alerted you on January 1 and confirmed on January 3, our systems were accessed illegally and members’ information, including names, email addresses, GPS coordinates from the address you provided to us, forum posts and direct member communications were among the data that was accessed.
We acted immediately upon hearing of a potential breach: we temporarily disabled the site, notified members and authorities and worked with our external security consultants to understand if and how it had occurred. We then confirmed the breach with members, safely restored the site to service and began the process of seeking the injunction. Yesterday’s decision by Justice Johnstone prohibits the use of the data by any unauthorised person, and requires them to permanently delete it, or any information obtained from it.
This does not mean that vigilance against scammers is not still required: there is a large industry globally that seeks to use stolen information for identity fraud or to dupe people into providing details of their financial affairs for theft. Again, to keep yourself safe from scammers it is critical that you:
- Don’t click links in emails. Instead, type the web address directly into your browser. This helps ensure you’re visiting a real site, not a fake one
- Enable two-factor authentication where available as this adds an extra layer of security to your data
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Again, we want to apologise to you for this illegal access to the Neighbourly database and to assure you that we have carefully worked through how this occurred. We have safely secured the site and its services for use and ensured we have robust processes in place so this cannot happen again.
We are continuing to work with the relevant authorities, including the National Cyber Security Centre, on any further steps we need to take.
If you have any further questions please contact us via our customer support team at helpdesk@neighbourly.co.nz.
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