logs4jobs
Filling the skilled worker shortage
New Zealand is experiencing an affordable housing crisis - 30,000 more houses are required each year. Rural New Zealanders are the underdogs to the development of our cities. Young people can't afford to buy a home, start families, or start businesses. Every day NZ exports its rural resources - raw logs - to China. The valuable logs are gone, our timber mills are closing. Manufacturing the logs into panels or components of houses adds value, profit and creates jobs. This is innovative construction - turning logs into houses utilising digital technology and creating work.
New Zealand has a shortage of skilled workers and this problem will only get worse. Statistics New Zealand estimates a growth in employment of 107,800 jobs in primary industries, manufacturing and construction by 2023 [1]. Number of new people needed by 2020 in Building and Construction: 64,000 (Source: GotATrade)
It is the skilled jobs within these areas which will see the biggest growth; technical operators, business manager, architects, planners, designers, surveyors and engineers.
Women are the untapped workforce able to fill the future skilled worker shortage. Under-worked and under-utilised, women make excellent employees - they are more safety conscious and more productive (DestinationTrades).
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PrefabNZ, in collaboration with Carter Holt Harvey Woodproducts, BCITO and CareersNZ, has produced this logs4jobs video to:
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Raise the awareness of young people, especially females, of the work opportunities
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Normalise females in Primary Industries, Manufacturing, Design and Construction
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Alert employers to the ability and value of females
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Highlight the range of rewarding jobs involved in turning logs into houses
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Demonstrate that these roles are high-skill and involve technology
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Demonstrate that our natural resources - forestry, can become a higher value product by undergoing innovative construction methods
PrefabNZ's logs4jobs initiative was an entrant in the Diversity Awards 2017.