A young North Canterbury resident with a passion for youth issues wants to connect businesses with Waimak’s young people to build up their workplace literacy.

Ellie Tizzard is investigating ways to bridge the gap between young people and local businesses as a post-Covid-19 project for Waimakariri MP Matt Doocey, following the release of Doocey’s report into business confidence in Waimakariri.

“One of the biggest challenges raised by our businesses in the Waimakariri Job Summit Report is the employment of young people. There was a consensus that businesses would like to employ youth but, due to economic uncertainty caused by COVID-19, they are hesitant to take that risk,” Ellie said.

As a Waimakariri Youth Council member and a former Oxford Area School head student, Ellie said she knew from engaging with Waimakariri’s young people during her year as Doocey’s Youth MP that many felt there was a gap in assistance to help them transition from school to the workplace.

“Matt has asked me to investigate ways to bridge the gap between young people and local businesses.

“Using my experience from the Waimakariri Youth Council and my time as the Youth MP, my aim is to support young people in advancing their workplace literacy and assist businesses in offering young people experience in a risk-free and mutually beneficial way. My aim this year is to establish a stepping stone between young people and local businesses,” Ellie said.

Doocey said the impact of last year’s Covid-19 lockdown on business confidence around the country had led him to reach out to local business owners to invite them to feed back some of their challenges and concerns through his Waimakariri Job Summit.

“This was to better understand the concerns being felt in Waimakariri and to look at how we as a community could work together to support our community’s resilience,” Doocey said.

Sixteen key findings emerged, which were collated into the Waimak Job Summit Report and fed back to all the businesses that had participated, Doocey said.