Friday, March 29, 2024

Boosting Māori participation

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Boosting Māori participation in the dairy industry is a challenge for Dairy NZ and the dairy industry.
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Recent Scarlatti research, funded by the Transforming the Dairy Value Chain PGP programme, puts the baseline figure of Māori in the dairy industry at about 9% including Māori-owned businesses.

DairyNZ’s strategy aims to boost Māori participation to 12% by 2025, and to 16% by 2040, chosen to reflect the proportion of Māori in the Aotearoa population.

Attracting and retaining Māori in the dairy workforce has always been a challenge, even for Māori dairy organisations who have stated aims of increasing employment of their tangata whenua.

Of the 9% currently in the industry, Māori (and mixed ethnicities including Māori) workers are concentrated in the younger age bands, indicating more Māori have been recruited recently, but more Māori leave the industry in their first four years. The research showed retention to be an issue with 25% of Māori leaving the industry every year compared with 15% of European New Zealanders, with only 24% of Māori staying in the industry by year five.

The Scarlatti work identified five sources of new hires into the industry; from secondary schools (42%), pre-employment tertiary training (10%), other workforces (30%), beneficiaries (8%) and immigration (10%).

Secondary school leavers and beneficiaries could be prime target groups for attracting more Māori into the industry, Dairy NZ Māori development manager Tony Finch says.

“The bulk of the 4000 new entrants each year into the sector are young, so that’s the biggest potential gain over time.”

Scarlatti models show increasing the percentage of new Māori recruits from secondary schools by 100 a year (an 80% increase), from tertiary education by 20 a year (50% increase) and beneficiaries by 20 a year (20% increase) would see the gain in numbers needed as long as the turnover rate of Māori dropping out of the industry was reduced in tandem from 25% to 15%.

The next piece of research for Dairy NZ is to flesh out the strategies engage more with young school leavers, work that has started will be delivered in the next one-two years.

“The pipeline thought is that we need to get ambassadors who have made the career choice and are making successful careers in the sector to be case studies for youth.”

“We know that young Māori listen to other young Māori, especially those with a good attitude and desire to succeed. Those stories need to be told – particularly in urban schools, where the majority of Māori youth reside.”

There are huge opportunities for beneficiaries as well but Finch says the strategies to engage more of them need further work.

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