ComCol North Canterbury to deliver course

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from Northern Outlook

From local democracy reporter David Hill:

North Canterbury’s community college is looking to make a return next month after an uncertain 12 months.

ComCol suspended its Youth Guarantee education programmes at the end of last year due to rising compliance costs.

A new eight-week pilot educational programme, Grow, is set to be launched by ComCol North Canterbury for term four.

Manager Kate O’Connor said the programme would teach in resilience, wellbeing, food security and sustainability.

Skills included cooking, budgeting and preparing a CV.

She said it would centre on growing food and preparing it in the kitchen.

But there would be flexibility to support students’ goals, including supporting them into work experience.

The pilot course would be funded from ComCol’s reserve funds and O’Connor was also seeking support from the community.

‘‘We felt the need was there in the community, so we are doing it on our own back.

‘‘And we are looking to the community to be involved in our project.

‘‘If people have an abundance of fruit and vegetables that we can come and harvest and help turn that excess produce into a usable product to go into our koha shed, we would love to hear from you.’’

ComCol already has established relationships with Rangiora High School, Salvation Army Rangiora and Satisfy Food Rescue.

Should the pilot be successful, O’Connor said ComCol would reapply to the Ministry of Social Development for Youth Guarantee funding.

She hoped to roll Grow out as a 12-week course across all the ComCol sites next year.

ComCol has been offering an alternative education option in North Canterbury for more than 30 years.

‘‘Schools in our region do a great job of educating a significant number of our young people, but for those whose needs are not met by the existing school system an alternative is required.’’

ComCol has continued to offer its free mentoring Youth Service across all of its South Island site.

The Rangiora site continues to support programmes for Rangiora and Kaiapoi high schools and Te Kura (home school) students.

■ Anyone who is interested in the Grow programme can contact ComCol North Canterbury on (03) 3135874 or email info@comcol.ac.nz.

■ Public interest journalism is funded by New Zealand on Air.