Horowhenua businesses surveyed on workforce needs

Horowhenua employers are telling it like it is in an online survey for a strategy to ensure there are enough suitably-skilled staff available locally to meet the demands of growing industries in the District.

The survey is a key part to developing the Horowhenua Workforce Development Strategy, launched recently at a presentation in Levin and attended by just over 100 representatives from local businesses.

In the first week there has been a steady stream of responses from employers, with the majority currently recruiting or expecting their workforce will need to increase and have identified roles that are expected to grow, as well as other opportunities for training, development and support.

Horowhenua Economic Development Board chairman Cameron Lewis urges employers who have not completed the survey to do so, in order to provide a real stock-take of current, emerging and future workforce needs in the District.

“The Board understands the need to have a work-ready labour force. We also understand the need for local students and their families to have a greater understanding of our industries and the career opportunities on offer here."

Mr Lewis says there are Horowhenua businesses that could ramp up their production tomorrow – if they had the people.

"Our local dairy farms are the second-most productive in the North Island on a production per cow basis and have real opportunities to increase this further. Yet, dairy farm workers are on Immigration New Zealand's immediate skills shortage list and some farms are needing to recruit from as far away as India and the Philppines," he said.

"Horowhenua's horticultural businesses provide significant employment in our community. But, some of our growers need to bring in people from the Pacific Islands to ensure their crops are picked on time, and therefore their local staffs’ jobs are not in jeopardy.

"We have sawmills in our District that are expanding while others elsewhere are closing their doors. We have eels being exported all over the world from a Levin factory. But these businesses have all expressed a need to continue to source reliable and skilled people to support growth and development."

Fellow board member Andy Wynne, chief executive of Levana Textiles, says that due to growth in the past two years, the increasing issue his business faces is completing orders.

“We have the manufacturing capabilities, but the real problem we have at the moment is a shortage of suitably-skilled labour. And, it’s become quite clear that other businesses are facing the same issues," he said.

"But once we understand what the workforce requirements are, we can engage local secondary schools, tertiary education and training providers to essentially roll out a curriculum in courses such as manufacturing, engineering, retail, agriculture, in conjunction with on-the-job work experience.

“This will be a New Zealand first. It will be something that will create an economic boom in our District, because people will move here to have their children educated in Horowhenua.”

HLC operations manager Barry Judd says that with improvements to State Highways leading to Horowhenua, it will make the District an even greater strategic location and attractive for businesses to relocate here.

"But we need to be ready and have a labour market that can meet the requirements of those businesses," he said.

"So, we need to have that conversation about how to train our young people to meet local industry needs, and also make them aware that there are real career opportunities here in Horowhenua.”

Stevensons Structural Engineers managing director Evan Kroll says that local school students do need to hear about other viable career options available for students who may not want to go to university for a degree to become a doctor, lawyer, accountant or work in information technology.

“We have apprentices earning $40,000, $50,000 per year. We also have young people now earning much more than that, who started with us 10 to 15 years ago doing after-school work and are now project managers, running multi million-dollar projects in Wellington."

Any employer wanting to participate in the Workforce Development Strategy online survey should contact Horowhenua District Council's Economic Development Manager Shanon Grainger on 06 366 0999 or shanong@horowhenua.govt.nz

ENDS

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