Hands up if you didn’t know that the NZQA had Qualification Recognition advisors to help migrants get their overseas qualifications recognised here. Well, they exist, and they can help overcome one issue that migrants consistently identify as a barrier to employment.

 

The Nelson Regional Economic Development Agency (EDA) recently invited NZQA Qualification Recognition Services manager Pamela Hulston to meet with key stakeholders in migrant employment issues. She spent the day talking to the EDA’s Work Force Development strategy New Migrants Working Group, listened to a group of new migrants share their experiences, and spent the evening explaining the recognition process to employers.

 

It is something that definitely needs to happen more often, says EDA projects and administration manager Pip Jamieson. The employers got a lot out of it, and the refugees both gained advice on how to get their qualifications recognised, and gave good feedback to NZQA about how difficult this was, she says.

 

“NZQA were really excited about being invited to the region to speak at grassroots with people experiencing the process. They welcomed the opportunity to get out of their Wellington office, and the migrants thoroughly appreciated sharing.”

 

For some migrants, it is not a different education but lack of education that is a barrier to employment. The EDA has identified a need for literacy and numeracy training, and wants to run in-work support pilots for this. “The plan for that is that in early February we’re going to pull together a focus group of employers and say, ‘Look, here’s these people in our region, you need staff, what’s the gap between you attracting and retaining them?’ So we can identify the barriers. We can say to them, ‘We want to pilot an In-Work Support programme; how can we talk with you about doing that in your work sites?’ That's one activity that will assist migrants and people with a disability to be sustainably employed in the workforce.”

 

Migrants also need access to New Zealand work experience. Research conducted through the EDA and Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology showed that out of 394 businesses approached that had not used work experience or subsidised schemes, 89 reported that they would consider doing so. “So that’s 89 in just the research sample that would be interested in offering work experience, and we want to activate those.”

 

The EDA’s research has established that nearly half of Nelson Tasman district employers are anticipating a need for either more part-time or more full-time employees over the next five years. Meanwhile, the region has the fourth-highest concentration of migrants in New Zealand. The EDA’s Work Force Development Strategy identified migrants as one of four key groups they needed to focus on in the labour supply side, and training as one of the workforce issues.

 

“Businesses are recognising their future need for staff, and they will need to really look after their staff, be good employers and provide  training, so that they can retain them. So they’ve got to have that mindset, which I think they will become increasingly aware of as the need becomes more and more apparent,” says Jamieson.

 

Making it easy is the key to persuading businesses to employ migrants, says Jamieson. “I think the In-Work Support will be quite important to some of those big firms.” The EDA also proposes setting up a database so employers will know who is looking for work and what skills they have to offer. “That will make it really easy for employers to look for the staff  they want.”