Technology

Māori students design app to improve job-seeking for youth

<h2>A tech-focused group of first-year M&amacr;ori students from Ara have designed an app to improve the process for youth seeking their first job&comma; by meeting them on the digital playing field they’re familiar with&period;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>As Team ROYO &lpar;Rangatahi Opportunities&sol;Youth Opportunities&rpar;&comma; the five students came together for the Programming M&amacr;ori Potential &lpar;PMP&rpar; digital start-up accelerator and won the South Island regionals with their smart solution to connect youth to work experience&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;There&&num;8217&semi;s a big need for businesses to find young people to bring in&semi; skilled or unskilled&comma; wanting to learn&comma; or having a passion for the industry&comma; and it&&num;8217&semi;s a struggle for young people to find a place where they can get experience&comma;&&num;8221&semi; says team member&comma; Eli Pohio&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Through the PMP programme&comma; 115 rangatahi M&amacr;ori from across New Zealand go head-to-head&comma; using hackathon and design thinking methodologies to identify and solve big community issues using tech solutions&comma; and then turn those solutions into viable business prototypes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Team ROYO saw a gap in the market for a platform where rangatahi could move away from the limits of traditional CVs&comma; to create more personalised digital profiles&comma; including video resumés and supporting attachments&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;We&&num;8217&semi;re trying to make CVs irrelevant&comma;&&num;8221&semi; says Pohio &&num;8220&semi;I went on to Reddit recently and asked hirers how many CVs they look at&comma; out of all of the ones they receive&period; On average&comma; they read two out of a huge pile&excl;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;And it&&num;8217&semi;s even harder for us because&comma; obviously companies want experience&comma; but how do you expect experience from people who are at school all day&quest;&&num;8221&semi; says Lizzie Keele&comma; whose sister Allie in the group&comma; is going into year 13 at Avonside Girls’ High School&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Faced with this knowledge&comma; and the age-old experience vs job conundrum&comma; the group developed their vision to help youth gain work experience by highlighting their personalities and skills digitally&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Using traditional CVs to apply for jobs is becoming outdated&period; If you’re an artist&comma; you can show what you can do&comma;&&num;8221&semi; says Lizzie Keele&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>Across the 10-week programme&comma; 17-19 year olds are immersed in the world of innovation and make valuable connections with industry leaders&comma; mentors and entrepreneurs &&num;8211&semi; including Chante Hakiwai&comma; PMP Lead from HTK Group&comma; the organisation that founded the &OpenCurlyQuote;PMP’ initiative&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;I think it&&num;8217&semi;s really important for our young people to have a voice and have the opportunity to create solutions that are meaningful to them&comma;&&num;8221&semi; says Hakiwai&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;A lot of solutions that these intelligent rangitahi come up with are aimed at young people&comma; but they’ll actually benefit the wider community &&num;8211&semi; they&&num;8217&semi;re intergenerational solutions&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>Out of all the groups involved in the PMP initiative&comma; 16 digital prototypes were created around important issues from housing&comma; to mental health&comma; to jobs&period; Three other teams have raised capital for their concepts and other teams are in conversations to seek funding from potential investors&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Following their PMP regional win&comma; ROYO received investment of up to &dollar;100&comma;000 and then reached out to Ara’s Tech Colab for the tech expertise to begin app development&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Now we’ve got a possible employment opportunity with our investor&comma;&&num;8221&semi; says group member Kiisha-Rose Woodhouse&period; &&num;8220&semi;The offer we&&num;8217&semi;ve received is amazing&comma; life changing really&period; They believe in our ideas and they&&num;8217&semi;re offering us awesome resources and training to be able to grow our own business&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Tech Colab paired the team up with Ara graduate&comma; Aditya Raj&comma; who helped ROYO build an MMP &lpar;minimal marketable product&rpar; which they can now use to showcase their idea to other funders and investors&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>ROYO are currently seeking other investors to build the next phase of their app and turn their concept into reality&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Following the programme group member Lizzie Keele was inspired to study at Ara and is looking to apply for a Diploma in Business&period; Hakiwai views this as a great outcome for the PMP programme&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;The thing about PMP is we don&&num;8217&semi;t just cut off support after the 10 weeks and say &OpenCurlyQuote;see you later’&comma; we work with these young people on their next steps&comma;&&num;8221&semi; Hakiwai explains&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;By partnering with Ara this has helped participants like Lizzie reach a point where they felt comfortable enough to step into that space&comma; as prior to the program many didn&&num;8217&semi;t see themselves in tertiary&period; A lot of them are coming to Ara now&comma; for that fact that they feel like they belong here&period; So that&&num;8217&semi;s a really impactful difference&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Ara Institute of Canterbury&comma; along with ChristchurchNZ&comma; Datacom&comma; Microsoft NZ and Te P&umacr;tahitanga o Te Waipounamu are Regional Partners of Programming M&amacr;ori Potential&period; The Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment is a national Strategic Partner&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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