Catlins Forest Park, The Catlins Southland Murihiku
Approach
Southland’s unemployment rate has hit its structural baseline at 2.6%. This means that there are significant challenges to attract and retain skilled workforce now, as well as into the future. The approach of this workstream is therefore closely aligned with the Attraction and Retention and other workstreams which could look at creating new industries. It will focus on ensuring that there is a joined-up approach to labour market planning which will see our workforce, education and immigration systems working together to better meet the differing workforce and skills needs in Murihiku Southland.
There is a valued partnership approach with the Regional Skills Leadership Group (RSLG) who produced the Southland Murihiku Regional Workforce Plan (RWP) in July 2022 and Murihiku Regeneration who are leading the Worker Transitions Just Transition workstream.
Key Outcomes
Support the RSLG to implement the Southland Murihiku Regional Workforce Plan (RWP) including:
- Support for the Vocational Education, Training and Careers work group which looks at advising central government on the delivery of training across the region
- Research to better understand ‘underutilised’ workforce
- Gaining insights on how to improve working conditions, with a focus on remote locations, seasonality and intermittent demand
Existing and new industries and their skilled workforce needs will be identified and considered e.g. aquaculture.
Focus on ensuring immigration policy enables recruitment of required workforce through ongoing advocacy and partnership. Also, in partnership with Immigration NZ, ensuring there are opportunities for employers to be trained on the new immigration certification process.
Creating links between youth and employers to develop future careers in Southland, including the continued delivery of the successful Southland Youth Futures Programme, which has seen 148 employers, all of the region’s secondary schools and 8,000 youth involved in the past 4 years.
Connection with other Workstreams:
The principles of this workstream will strongly underpin the overall Beyond 2025 Southland plan with close alignment to the following workstreams:
Retention and Attraction
Attract and retain people to the region by actively promoting Southland Murihiku as an attractive and vibrant place for people to live, work and play.
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Primary Sector
To ensure that the primary sector, in particular agriculture, continues to be the driving force of the Southland Murihiku economy and the backbone of the New Zealand economy.
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Technology and Manufacturing
To identify opportunities, constraints and pathways forward to diversify and grow/expand technology based and manufacturing businesses in Southland Murihiku.
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Business Enablement, Capacity and Competitiveness
To identify pathways and support networks for existing local businesses to be innovative, remain competitive and create capability - supporting the positioning of Southland Murihiku as a globally competitive marketplace
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