It’s no news that as a country we face many challenges when it comes to attracting talent. Our region’s significant growth trajectory and economic resilience means that we have a large number of jobs to fill.
CEDA has been leading key pieces of work to support the Infrastructure and Construction Sector. Due to the large number of resource consents for commercial and residential builds and infrastructure projects in the region, it was decided that this sector needed urgent support.
In September, CEDA coordinated and facilitated a workshop to key industry leaders, training providers, partners, and stakeholders to seek feedback and develop a range of solutions to help address a significant regional challenge and inform an extensive action plan to support this sector.
“The sector’s willingness to work together and take ownership was inspiring. We are now meeting regularly, planning and implementing work such as the recently released Talent and Skills Workforce Profile and the Action Plan that came out of these koreros,” says Talent and Skills Manager Sara Towers.
A collective has now been formed, ‘Te Ropu Tuapapa – Infrastructure and Construction Sector Collective Action Group’ to determine our future actions. The key groups of people identified to leverage building representation or build the talent pipeline from the ground up are outlined below:
- Kura tuarua / Secondary schools
- Rangatahi / Youth / NEET
- He rapu mahi / Job seekers
- Tāngata whaikaha / People with disabilities
- Te umanga whakarei / Career changers
- Wāhine / Women
- Māori and Pasifika
- Te ope kātua o Aotearoa – NZDF
We have also defined actions to attract local talent, determining how we can develop new talent and identified approaches to onboard new recruits and longer-term how the workforce can be retained.
Actions include the creation of a significant national marketing campaign to attract talent to the infrastructure and construction sector, highlighting job opportunities in Manawatū to help combat the current skills shortage.
Other actions include industries engaging with secondary and tertiary students to support their transitions and pathways into careers and connecting industry with organisations that support the development of people to be work ready, including National Driver Training Centre, Talent Central and the Central Skills Hub.
