Media release: Youth Guarantee students have sights set on hospitality careers

Two Kaitaia-based students have their sights set on careers as chefs after a year spent studying on the Government-funded Youth Guarantee programme at NorthTec in Whangarei.

Youth Guarantee is a fees-free programme for 16-17 year olds designed to give students who have struggled to success at school with a taste of a trade or industry such as tourism or hospitality.

More than 80 students took part in the programme at NorthTec this year with the Government boosting the number of places on offer at NorthTec to 140 in 2011. Next year students will be able to choose from a range of study options on the Youth Guarantee Programme including trades, hospitality, sport and outdoor education, arts, computing, forestry and environmental studies.

“I’ve loved the programme,” said NorthTec Youth Guarantee student Evelyn Robertson. “I want to study hospitality at NorthTec next year. I love cooking.”

Studying with a group has been great, said Evelyn. “We’re like a family.” The students from Kaitaia have travelling down to study at the Raumanga campus every Monday and Tuesday, staying overnight in the NorthTec marae.

Fellow student Hayden Reihana is very positive about the experience too. “It was sweet as! The best thing has been getting knowledge so I can put it into a job and get a job more easily. It’s been good to get out and do something different. Now I want to go into the army and be a chef.” The first step for Hayden will be to continue his studies on the hospitality programme with NorthTec next year.

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As a reward for completing their programme Evelyn, Hayden and their classmates were recently taken to Auckland to visit hospitality suppliers, restaurants and venues including the House of Knives, Sabato, Yum Cha and the Sky Tower. “We went to the Viaduct and stayed at the President Hotel. We also visited a Chinese grocer stopped at the Honey Centre and a chocolate factory on our way back up north.”

“It’s all about envisaging a future and giving the students the opportunity to imagine taking their place in the hospitality industry,” said NorthTec tutor and executive chef and owner of Whangarei restaurant Killer Prawn, Owen Sinclair.

Evelyn has already been recommending the programme to her friends and is under no illusion that she has a lot of work ahead of her to achieve her dream. “I want to be a chef. It’s a pretty hard job, but I can work myself up to it.”

NorthTec is the Tai Tokerau (Northland) region's largest provider of tertiary education, with campuses and learning centres in Whangarei, Kerikeri, Rāwene, Kaikohe and Kaitaia. NorthTec also has over 60 community-based delivery points from Coatesville in rural Rodney to Ngataki in the Far North.

ENDS

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