By Ally Mullord
Labour leader Phil Goff says Government is taking the wrong approach to solving youth unemployment.
Mr Goff says National’s welfare reforms, which include a payment card for young people on the benefit and a possible return to the youth wage, are ignoring the most important factor in youth unemployment – training.
“It’s about young people having the ability to get on training courses, having the support around them to make sure they complete them and get out and get a job,” he says.
“That’s what we need to be focused on, and at the same time we’re seeing cuts in training programmes and a withdrawal of support.”
Mr Goff says the payment card scheme, which would limit the items young beneficiaries could spend their benefit on, is a “red herring” and takes the focus away from the issue of training programmes.
“The Government’s talking big but at the same time it’s cutting $145 million out of training this year,” he says.
“[Government] shouldn’t be cutting the funding into skills training, that’s critical – we’ve got a shortage of skills and a whole lot of young people out of work, it needs to bring the two together.”
John Key hasn’t ruled out a return to youth wage, something Mr Goff says “might see a transfer of unemployment from young to older people” but isn’t fair.
“If two people are both doing the same job in the same way, the same level of productivity, why would you discriminate against one on the basis of age? If it’s a training programme, an apprenticeship, that’s a different thing - but equal pay for equal work.”
He says Labour’s approach would be based on the system Otorahanga mayor Dale Williams has run for the past seven years.
“No young person leaves school without being followed through into further training, further education, or other assistance. People can’t drop through the cracks,” he says.
“Secondly, the training programmes that he runs down there are related to the job market, so they’re relevant… thirdly, he’s got mentoring of the young people while they’re on training, which leads to a 96 percent successful completion of training.
“Those are the answers, the Government just needs to be doing that.”
Watch the video for the full interview
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