Cash and careers are being used to entice young West Coasters to stay in the region.
Usually, once they finish secondary school, many look for opportunities elsewhere, regional economic development agency Development West Coast said.
In 2021, as part of the development of the regional economic strategy, workshops were held with rangatahi to better understand their perspectives.
Of the 22 young Coasters taking part, 90% said they didn’t see a future for themselves on the West Coast and expected to live elsewhere in 30 years.
Development West Coast chief executive Heath Milne said there was an urgent need to address youth retention and improve perceptions of the region.
He told 1News their best export has been 16- to 25-year-olds, which has been challenging.
“There’s no university here, they have to go off the coast and once the really good ones get into a life elsewhere, they either find alternatives or other regions, and even other countries get their claws into them.
“It’s really hard to bring them back, particularly early in their career.”
Annual scholarships worth up to $35,000 have been introduced to incentivise youth to stay. It includes post-study employment bonds to ensure students return to work on the Coast for two years.
Local businesses have also offered work experience to all local students during academic breaks.
“It means a trust for my community that I can achieve and do well,” scholarship recipient Iris Reynolds, who hopes to study medicine, said.
“It means that I can study without any burden or stress.”
The latest census data shows West Coasters are getting older. The median age in the region is 48 years old, compared to 38 for the rest of New Zealand. Twenty-two per cent of Coasters are over the age of 65.
Infometrics principal economist and lead demographer Nick Brunsdon said the Coast is in many ways like the rest of regional New Zealand but “it’s a little bit more at the pointy end”.
“They have the same challenges as many regions. Often, young people want to leave and move away to study or to get jobs and that’s fine, but it’s going to be a bit of a battle in attracting young people back when they come down to an age where they might want to settle and raise a family,” he said.
The West Coast also has the additional pressure of the coal mining industry “really pulling back about a decade ago”.
“As those jobs dried up, a lot of people in that young working age, childbearing age population left the area and that kind of left an older population remaining.”
A growing number of local businesses are also offering guaranteed holiday work to young people during their academic breaks as the demand for skilled workers increases.
Paradise Farm Vets is among the businesses supporting the scheme.
“I think any initiative to keep these great West Coast kids returning here after university is good,” Michael Lilly said.
“The thing I like about the scholarship is it allows you to have a longer-term lead-in to employing people.”
