Regional Strategies
Regional Strategies
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Brella Group develops and leads high-impact initiatives inspiring positive social and economic change.
Developed in consultation with key stakeholders, Brella Group's regional strategies are targeted towards resolving social challenges such as youth unemployment and skills shortages.
School - employer partnerships
Secondary School-Employer Partnerships (SSEP) has been developed to strengthen vocational pathways between school and employers and to support the supply of skilled labour. The goal of SSEP, developed under Brella Group's contract with Smart Waikato Trust and supported by the Waikato Means Business, Ministry of Education and WEL Energy Trust, is to improve student retention, achievement and education-to-employment transitions, beginning with Year 9 and 10 students and progressing to senior students. SSEPs see employer groups from priority sectors linking into school faculties to support contextualised learning for students.
"There is a real opportunity for SSEPs to be a beacon project for the rest of New Zealand. Structured partnerships between schools and business will have a positive impact for us all."
Susan Hassall, Hamilton Boys' High School Principal.
(Photos courtesy Smart Waikato Trust)
FutureForce® Careers Resource
FutureForce® Careers Resource is an annual volume designed to give youth, their parents and teachers real, impartial and practical information on careers in their region. Developed by Brella Group, copies are distributed free to senior secondary school students via their career teachers, who use it as a classroom resource.
FutureForce® profiles young staff working in key Waikato industries, career planning tools and tips, leads and information on regional workplaces, work readiness information and more.
FutureForce® licensed superhero characters have been developed by Brella Group to represent go-ahead New Zealand industry sectors and as a tool to better communicate industry skill needs to young people, their families and their teachers.
FutureForce® Action Network
FutureForce Action Network (FAN) events create awareness of youth unemployment and provide employers with the tools, strategies and networks to grow their own skilled workforce by offering more work experience, internships, apprenticeships, cadetships and jobs.
FAN Event at Thames Toyota Vehicle Operations. (Photo courtesy Smart Waikato Trust)
FAN Events are free to attend and are designed to inspire stakeholders by raising awareness of the need to offer work-based opportunities and training for local youth.
FAN Activate Workshops assist motivated employers to develop successful workplace opportunities for youth.
Regional Labour Market Strategy
Brella Group has broad knowledge of, and involvement in, regional labour market strategy.
Managing Director Mary Jensen is on project groups of the Waikato Labour Market Strategy and Developing the Waikato Story.
Brella Group's Mary Jensen, centre, with Waikato Means Business chair John Cook
and Ministry of Education's Jean Patterson. (Photo courtesy Smart Waikato Trust)
ITO Meetings
Brella Group facilitates regional connections between Industry Training Organisation (ITO) representatives, hosting meetings to learn about the challenges they face and to keep them informed about labour market activities.
Waikato Industry Training Organisations with Brella Group's Linda Nelson Caie and Mary Jensen. (Photo courtesy Smart Waikato Trust)
Engineering for Educators
Developed for the Waikato Engineering Careers Association, Engineering for Educators gives regional technology teachers the opportunity to make real-world connections with industry. The event includes a visit to a high-tech engineering business and encourages teachers to build on-going connections with the sector.
Engineering for Educators at The Gallagher Group
(Photos courtesy Waikato Engineering Careers Association)
FutureForce® Job Board
A free service, Smart Waikato's FutureForce® Job Board advertises regional youth workplace opportunities directly to careers advisers and work brokers with the objective that they encourage suitable candidates to apply.
Young Enterprise
The Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme (YES) in Waikato and King Country is a New Zealand-wide initiative managed by Brella Group for Smart Waikato Trust. YES sees business mentors support Year 12 and 13 students as they work through the experiential learning process of setting up and running a business, creating, promoting and selling a product or service, conducting market research, planning, budgeting, managing risk, and turning problems into challenges.
(Photos courtesy Smart Waikato Trust)
Social Progress Action Network
Facilitated by Brella Group for Smart Waikato's Social Progress Action Network (SPAN), the Ngaruawahia - Huntly Collaborative Youth Strategy has been developed to empower rangatahi (young people) by creating sustainable economic, educational and cultural opportunities.
The initiative brings together education providers and social sector agencies, and includes a FAN Event for local employers.
Ngaruawahia - Huntly Collaborative Youth Strategy working group (Images courtesy Smart Waikato Trust)
NEET to Employment
The NEET (Not in Employment, Education or Training)-to-Employment model incorporates education providers, social sector agencies, NEET youth and employers. Key components also include FAN events, work readiness assessments and potentially large-scale community projects.
The aim is to significantly reduce the number of NEET youth, first by developing a regional strategy to identify initiatives and co-ordinate the delivery of these, and secondly, by implantation and evaluation of these initiatives.
(Image courtesy Smart Waikato Trust)
Leadership Summit
Brella Group is behind a Smart Waikato Trust initiative to connect secondary schools and industry.
The biennial Smart Waikato Leadership Summit has been heralded as “the way forward” for the region by business, education and iwi leaders. Key leaders, including secondary school Principals, their Board of Trustee chairs, business leaders, Mayors and supporters, attend the biennial summit, themed around Guiding, Developing and Retaining Youth in our Region.
Inaugural Smart Waikato Leadership Summit (Photo courtesy Smart Waikato Trust)
Research
Brella Group's research expertise has given comprehensive snapshots of a number of social and economic challenges faced by regional New Zealand.
As an example, Smart Waikato's Youth Employment Survey gathered insight from 280 employers from all sectors of the economy to gain an appreciation of the opportunities they offered 15 – 24 year olds in the workplace and in particular the barriers to employing youth and future employment intentions.
A regional Careers Teacher and Gateway Co-ordinator Survey was used to analyse the needs of 70 regional Careers Teachers and Gateway staff.
Global best practice research has underpinned Brella Group's development of an innovative and comprehensive suite of HR resources for Smart Waikato Trust, designed to make easier for employers to offer better work opportunities to young people.
Brella's global research of Secondary School Employer Partnerships has strengthened the development of the initiative in New Zealand.
FAN Quick Guide HR tool (Photo courtesy Smart Waikato Trust)
EVolocity Waikato
EVolocity, is operated in Waikato under Brella Group's Waikato Engineering Careers Association contract with a focus to grow enrollments in tertiary STEM studies and trades training, while fostering awareness of sustainable lifestyles using an electric vehicle project-based learning programme for young people.
With assistance from tertiary tutors, engineering mentors and EVolocity, secondary school student teams are equipped with an electric motor kit to build their own bike or cart, learning about the environmental advantages of electric vehicles.
EVolocity Waikato Build Day (Photos courtesy Wintec)
