Supporting youth to earn while they learn

With over 400 families now living in their new homes, a concern from the local community was how the landscaping, the playgrounds and open spaces would be maintained in amongst a massive residential construction site, before handing over to Council.

“This development in Northcote(external link) is huge – people already live there and there is still a lot of building underway. While construction continues, we need to maintain a clean site, ensure the newly planted landscaping and communal areas like lawns are well maintained so the local community can enjoy these spaces” says Nigel Chandra, Construction Plus Manager for Kāinga Ora.

The solution was working with Ama Training Group, a registered NZQA training provider committed to upskilling Māori and Pasifika people into meaningful employment. Their focus includes the development of life and work competency skills for youth in the infrastructure industry.

“Ama Civil, part of the Ama Training Group, focuses on the development of youth for pathways into employment “says Nigel.

“Their ‘earn while you learn’ approach aligned well with Kāinga Ora development team at Northcote. We needed to employ contractors to do this work, and Ama Civil had young people to support into successful careers in the construction sector.

“Working with the urban development manager and procurement teams at Kāinga Ora we were able to contract Ama Civil to do landscaping maintenance work at the Northcote site. It Is work that needed doing and supporting youth into employment pathways is a win-win for everyone.”

Since March 2023, a group of 10 young Aucklanders who were unemployed and not in any education or training programmes, are now spending two full days a month maintaining the development site in Northcote, learning new skills and being mentored by experienced construction and civil works leader Jose Smith, Ama Civils Supervisor.

Though this course, Jose says he aims to help everyone in this young team establish a solid routine and become confident in their work.

“They’ve learnt to take pride in their work and are quite methodical,” he says.

“They now know the landscaping process and automatically reach for the weed eater, then the mower and end with the blower. So they are really taking on board what we are teaching them.

“Our overarching goal is to help the youth be confident and learn they can achieve. Our organisation’s kaupapa is don’t leave anyone behind, so if one student is struggling, we rally together to bring them back up.”

“These young people have dreams and they want to be successful. The purpose of this programme is to teach them the benefits of a daily routine and that they can step up and achieve full time employment, or go onto further training, and we will support and guide them on their journey.”

The Ama Civil team will continue in this role for the next year and feedback from the young workers tells us they are learning new skills while enjoying the benefits of a regular income, and they fully understand this work experience will give them choices in the future.

Kāinga Ora explored opportunities to work with Ama Civil Limited as part of our commitment to deliver wider impact throughout our projects, in alignment with our Pā Harakeke our Social and Sustainable Procurement Framework. We also support people into construction sector trade apprenticeships.