Vocational Mentoring

How do young people get placed on the programme?
An admission form is completed and forwarded to the programme manager.

What are the reporting requirements from the programme to the referrer?
The programme will maintain records of the young person’s progress and will report weekly by email to the referrer agency. The programme will contact the referrer in a timely fashion where and important incident or issue arises.

How long does the programme go for and what is the discharge process?
Each client’s placement will be between three to six months but dependent on the content of the young person’s individual plan. By arrangement the placement may be extended.

There will be consultation with the referrer around an appropriate time to end the placement and the programme will provide a discharge report.

Who can be placed on the programme?
Young people can be referred to the programme through Oranga Tamariki in the Auckland community. The client group includes youth justice offenders subject to court orders.

What does a young person do on the programme?
Once referred a young person is partnered with a vocational mentor. A plan to get ready for employment is developed with the young person and their referrer. The expectation is that the client will have 2-4 hours contact with the mentor regularly each week augmented by text or email contact.

The content of the placement includes:

• Support to get work skills training and / or work employment.
• Support to remain in / return to education provision where appropriate.
• Pro-social activities as incentives when completing part of plan. These may include life skills training, sports and recreational training, cultural learning/activities.

What are the outcomes sought by the Reconnect Vocational Mentoring programme?

• Build vocational skills – CV development, provision of training opportunities, work placement.
• Reintegrate young people into mainstream society – behaviour improvement, client satisfaction with placement and mentor.
• Build partnerships and collaboration with key stakeholders – degree of support developed with other stakeholders and wider acceptance of the merits of this programme.