CASE STUDY

Education Unlimited

Tina Rose, the founder of Education Unlimited (EU), has provided training for the Progressive Employment Programme interns (PEP) since inception in 2019.

Education Unlimited deliver tailor made workplace training with clear outcomes but with the agility to adapt to an individual or cohort’s specific needs.

Tina said what she loved was that “the PEP is about individuals and growing the capability and confidence of the rangatahi to get a career and a real opportunity to try something they had never heard of before, and maybe would never have had the opportunity, if not for the PEP”.

The first workshop delivered was Understanding Your Contract to ensure rangatahi knew what they were signing. Tina said “the words in contracts are legal words, not words we use in our everyday lives. Remuneration for example means pay but you never hear it as remuneration, except in your contract”.

The PEP interns reviewed their contracts and understood what they were signing, including what was expected of them, particularly the health and safety requirements. They even spent a bit of time looking at the Health and Safety at Work Act. They also looked at examples of payslips and were shocked to discover how much money went out in PAYE and what all the acronyms meant.

Education Unlimited designed Write Up, Speak Up, Be Safe to help people understand Health and Safety requirements onsite, such as completing an incident report and building their confidence to speak up. This was offered to the interns as a micro credential in collaboration with Otago Polytechnic. The learning needed to gain the formal recognition meant the interns owned the responsibility for their own health and safety and that of their workmates.

Workplace numeracy training was also provided, with the aim to empower rangatahi to ask appropriate questions and be able to find the answers. Tina remembers one of the PEP reviewing her payslip and her employment contract and identifying that the amount on her payslip was less than the amount stated in her contract, providing a ‘live example’ for the interns. Discussions about assertiveness rather than aggressiveness followed. Tina wanted to ensure rangatahi had the opportunity to learn how to communicate effectively. She identifies ‘soft skills’ as critical skills and states “they are the skills that enable us to be the best we can be”.

Education Unlimited’s whakatauki “Mā te mahitahi, ka tipu te mātauranga, mā te mātauranga ka tipu hei tāngata” (Through working as one, there is growth in knowledge, from that knowledge people grow) is visible across CRL Ltd, Link Alliance, Education Unlimited and especially the PEP rangatahi.