Concern about lost skills

Press, 20 April 1982, Page 10

Concern about lost skills

Many young unemployed people in Christchurch were desperate ,to work, just to avoid losing their typing, shorthand, or accounting skills, the employment • promotion co-ordinator, Mr Geoffrey Stevenson, told- Friday's meeting of the Christchurch City Council’s job-creation working party. Recent job interviews had turned up a pool of young people with good skills but who were forgetting them as a result of months out of work, said Mr Stevenson. Many were keen to work for' voluntary organisations to practise their skills and also to get valuable work experience.

1 The fact that they were willing to work for .voluntary organisations would show prospective employers that they were motivated to get work, he said. Many Christchurch voluntary and charitable organisations would be very happy to have these people working

for them. The young people would remain on the unemployment benefit while doing the work. ‘Mr Stevenson said that he expected the unions to support such a voluntary aid scheme and the only problem would be getting the unemployed and the charitable organisations in contact. Plans were going ahead to make the council the contact for the scheme and the new service would be advertised when ready. Herbs The council’s herb trust has received its first cheque of more than $2OO, for an export order of 400 bunches of mixed herbs sent by air freight to Los Angeles. The 'herb-growing was forging X ahead, said the trust’s secretary, Mrs Leonie Richardson.

Consignments had been sent to Brisbane, Sydney, West Germany, and Los

Angeles. Trust workers were still slightly perplexed about how to fill an order from Japan for 400 tons of fresh parsley, said Mrs Richardson. The market in Sydney would handle any amount of herbs the. trust could send, she: said. The only problem was that some of the herbs the trust intended to grow — such as nodding thistle, which yielded a lot of oil — were on the Ministry of Agriculture noxious weeds list. Small business In’only its first month, the council’s small business advisory service had received 37 inquiries and salvaged one business, said the small business adviser, Mr Rowan Gibson. Mr Gibson said that this figure had been achieved without any advertising, apart from promotional brochures left in Christchurch banks. ‘

Of the inquiries, 24 were from people wanting to start new businesses, six ■ from those wanting to buy existing business, five wanting to expand, and two from businesses needing rescuing. Mr Gibson said that many of the clients had already been to other small business agencies but had found that the council provided everything in one package. ' Clients no longer had to go to various agencies to get the information they needed. Mr Gibson said that if specialised help was needed, he made the appointments himself and personally introduced clients to council staff in relevant departments. One complete business salvage had been sought by a prison inmate whose business associate had been “ripping him off.” Mr Gibson said the council had been able to salvage something of the man’s business.