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'Something wrong' with Youth Guarantee scheme - Labour

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'Something wrong' with Youth Guarantee scheme - Labour

3News NZ

Grant Robertson

Grant Robertson

Labour says there are no guarantees for young people when it comes to the Government's Youth Guarantee scheme.

New figures show low course completion rates for the last-chance education programme, with an average of 40 percent of students not finishing.

Labour's Grant Robertson says the 700 or so dropouts from 2010 wasted an estimated $10 million in Government funding.

“These are going to be difficult young people to work with, but that’s why the Government gives $500 for each of them to the institution to provide pastoral care, not everyone’s going to succeed but when you’ve got completion rates of around 44% something’s going wrong,” says Mr Robertson.

The figures show Northland Polytechnic had the least success, with just 44 percent of students completing the course, and around 30 percent getting a qualification.

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Comments

24/08/2012 9:27:17 a.m.

mum wrote:

My son is in a Services Academy. He is year 11. This is the first year of whole his schooling life that he is enjoying school. He comes home feeling appreciated. He is experiencing success AND he has friends! I don't care if it takes him 3 more years to gain level one in NCEA. I am so proud of how far he has come this year that NCEA is secondary to him becoming a valued citizen. 4 out of 10 are dropping out? My son is one of the 6! What an achievement! Thank you Youth Gaurantee!

20/08/2012 10:41:41 a.m.

Richard wrote:

Minimum wage killed off job offers for after school kids and uni students working during holidays. Ask any kid, they would love to earn $10 an hour than not have a job. But the minimum wage makes it hard for them and employers.

20/08/2012 10:34:40 a.m.

pondering wrote:

@Alison. You are so right. The young have had the rug pullled out from under them. An investment in youth has a high yield for NZ future.

20/08/2012 8:05:29 a.m.

alison wrote:

I wonder if these students are better served to be doing a hands on apprenticeship with funding as such going to the prospective boss as in the Old days. The take up rate seems to show they want the skills but not everyone learns in the same way and the drop out rate seems to show that many are getting despondent. A shame really as quite a few low academic achievers have gone far in this world and are some of our greatest.