Maddy Shuker enjoys playing with a child in the Hastings kindergarten.
While unemployment is at a 13-year high, students completing degrees are EIT are bucking the trend in securing permanent jobs.
Statistics New Zealand figures showed the unemployment rate jumping to 7.3 percent in the September quarter, with youth unemployment an area of particular concern. Commentators blame the high New Zealand dollar for sapping export efforts and point to a lack of suitably qualified people for the available jobs.
Against this backdrop, EIT’s Bachelor of Teaching (Early Childhood Education) students are winding up their academic year. Yet Head of School for Education and Social Sciences Gwenda Kevern says 15 of the final-year students – about a half of the class – have already lined up permanent positions.
The rate is even higher for the Bachelor of Applied Social Sciences (Social Work), with 14 of 19 final-year students, or some 75 percent of the cohort, securing jobs.
Having lived with her parents in Taradale while studying for her early childhood teaching degree, Maddy Shuker is about to move into a flat close to her workplace in Hastings.
The 21-year-old says her full-time job is “absolutely the pinnacle” for early childhood teaching, with the Lumsden Kindergarten attracting families from as far away as Havelock North.
Maddy started as a volunteer at the kindergarten and was subsequently offered a part-time paid position. She’s been based in the baby centre since it opened a year ago and it is where she will be working full-time next year.
“I love and adore every child I work with,” she says. “It’s wonderful to be able to empower them and watch them grow. I believe the early years are the most important in a child’s life, and it’s very rewarding work. Parents are entrusting the teachers with their babies.”
Having taken advantage of EIT’s Year 13 study grant, Maddy will be finishing her degree with no student loan. And her career is off to a strong financial start with a $10,000 TeachNZ scholarship which requires her to teach for three of the next five years in New Zealand.
Rowena Kelly at the family’s Onekawa home.
Mother-of- two Rowena Kelly studied part-time over the last five years to complete her Bachelor of Social Sciences (Social Work). Shortly before Christmas, she will be starting work as a social worker at Child Youth and Family – together with four others in her cohort.
It’s a goal accomplished for Rowena and partner Jason.
“We wanted a better lifestyle for ourselves and our family so aimed at getting a better education.”
Jason, a painter-decorator when he started his Bachelor of Computer Systems at EIT shortly after the birth of their first child, works in IT at the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board.
“It’s a challenge to study while raising children,” Rowena says. “Having completed my degree still seems a bit surreal, but well worth it.”
Like Maddy, Rowena feels a great sense of achievement in completing her studies and she is very much looking forward to launching into her career.
“I’m lucky to have a permanent job and I’m grateful for all the wonderful support I’ve received along the way,” she says. “It will be the start of a whole new learning journey for me.”