Transcript
KIM TUAINE: The programme is aimed at young people between the ages of 16 and 26. And so it will be people who will be coming to the end of their secondary education, or people who may have not completed school but want to develop an enterprise opportunity. The programme really is aimed at showing our young people, their families and our communities that business is a vocational pathway and its actual a kind of important one given the global economy. And in order for I guess families and communities buy into the idea of business being a viable career path for young people we partnered with Massey University and they are providing educational pathways that are really flexible and aimed at developing the skills that we are developing through our programme, which runs for three years which are all focussed around developing business capability and getting the business part right, so the execution of that. And then plugging them into mainstream business networks that typically they wouldn't have access to.
JENNY MEYER: So what sort of businesses are you aiming to support?
KT: Well we are really looking for the best and the brightest. So the application process will be quite rigourous. So it's people who have a startup, who are running a startup already. So one of the potential pipelines that we've identified is through the Young Enterprise Trust, and young people who work in that space. Similarly we would be looking at people who may have applied to, or who have participated in the Venture Up scheme. Or you know young people who have come to business in a fairly non traditional way, who have come up with a great idea, maybe banded together with a group of friends and have gone through sort of early phase validation of their opportunity. And are looking to really scale that business and really learn some important skills alongside the execution of their business model as well as being plugged into some of the best and brightest commercial leaders New Zealand has to offer.
JM: And what sort of costs are involved to those who apply for the programme?
KT: Our programme is completely free so there's no cost at all. However obviously there's costs that are associated with undertaking tertiary study. However we are connected with a range of organisations and grants that might be available for them to reduce the costs of the educational pathways with Massey University.