School leavers from Waitakere City will benefit from a number of scholarships aimed at developing engineers and planners.
While Waitakere City Council will be initially focusing on developing engineers, in the long term scholarship the focus will shift to include planning students.
The council’s vision is to demonstrate ‘ongoing commitment’ towards fostering a sustainable society. It says as an organisation it is working to create a city where everyone can participate in city life, and as a part of this can access affordable, flexible, creative and inspirational learning.
To ensure this vision becomes a reality Waitakere City Council will each year award a number of scholarships to students from the city.
Waitakere is introducing a two-phase, bonded, undergraduate scholarship, including:
- short-term final year engineering one year scholarship
- long term flexible scholarship focused on recruiting local Waitakere secondary school leavers.
- co-ordination of summer student and work experience recruitment and employment
The scholarship is proposed to work with current learning and development initiatives to build better working relationshipsandlead Waitakere City Council towards becoming an employer of choice by:
- offering enhanced professional development opportunities
- augmenting succession planning
- assisting our existing employees to identify meaningful career paths
- retaining skilled employees
Council says the above will be achieved by growing its capability through providing:
- local choices for local people
- focused recruitment initiatives for professions experiencing skills shortages
- ongoing support and work experience for students throughout their learning journey
- building and supporting relationships with Waitakere City’s secondary schools, external education providers, professional and industry organisations/associations, related government agencies, professional partners.
Focusing on students in the local area has numerous benefits, the council says, including growing the capability of the organisation, stimulating talent and skill growth in the city as a whole; subscription to sustainability objectives by raising the profile of local schools and encouraging the city’s youth to be educated ‘in zone’, thereby easing congestion and promoting local choices.
Such a programme will be unique in the Auckland region. While other local bodies are focusing on offering opportunities to postgraduate students and and/or graduates, Waitakere City Council will be acting progressively to target school leavers.
This is particularly important as it dovetails effectively with the Eco-City principles since it has the additional benefit of encouraging local students to make the choice to be educated locally.
This helps to ease congestion travelling in and out of the city daily and further works to works towards a more sustainable Waitakere City.
While Waitakere Council will be initially focusing on developing engineers, in the long term scholarship the focus will shift to include planning students.
There are many opportunities at Waitakere City Council for planners to be involved in assessing resource consent applications for greenfield development in the north of the city. A new major town centre, two village townships, large areas of employment land and almost ten thousand dwellings are proposed by 2020.
The New Lynn township redevelopment is an interesting current initiative. It involves creating better open space, retail, walkability and a greater sense of community. It also features the under-grounding of the commuter rail line to improve cross-town connectability.
(1). Further information at: www.waitakere.govt.nz/AbtCit/cp/newlynn.asp).
(2). The Norsga development is another major initiative that offers exciting opportunities for future planners to be involved in progressive urban design and development: www.waitakere.govt.nz/AbtCit/cp/norsga.asp)