I’m excited about the potential of “Aotearoa, World Leaders in Environmental Innovation” and I work towards this goal by supporting and connecting the talents of our nation.
When I spend anytime looking it seems obvious to me that we kiwis have the time, talent and resources to lead the world when it comes to reducing our carbon emissions. It simply will require change because as Albert Einstein points out:-
“…The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them…”
Yet, despite Einsteins wisdom, it seems the potential of our next generation of entrepreneurs – to innovate and create the solutions we need – is being overlooked, or is that ignored? in favour of preserving the status quo.
Let’s support kiwi entrepreneurs as they forge new industries by 2020 from the seeds we plant today.
Sustainable housing. Earth homes and straw houses are just the tip of the iceberg.
Green Education. Thanks to programmes like enviroschools we could potentiality add Enviro. to most of today’s existing job titles
Green energy. Wind Wave Solar Tidal…Check.
My point is simply if we can think of these today, what can we come up with tomorrow? Why limit our future potential by trying to peg it to the realities of today? Our collective potential might even exceed 40% by 2020.
With John Keys announcing a $152 million package to create new work, education and training opportunities for unemployed young people we’re feeling even more confident that our vision around helping the youngest working age generation transition into work will find support on many levels. Well, we hope that it does but at the very least we’re reassured to learn that our mission aligns with the concern of our current Prime Minister who said yesterday:-
I am concerned for our young people.Those aged 18-24 are the fastest growing age group on the Unemployment Benefit, representing a third of all those who receive it.
The number of young people who wanted a job but couldn’t get one has more than quadrupled in the past year, leaping from less than 4000 in June 2008 to nearly 17,000 by June this year.
My concern is that for a young person starting out in their working life, a long period of unemployment could be very damaging. Source
Quid Pro Quo: Using Time Trade to Encourage Young People to Volunteer
When we looked at solving problems relating to work it was quickly evident that young people are the demographic most in need of solutions. So we got together to identify ways we could help them transition from study to work.
Lacking the work experience needed to gain value from our contractors’ marketplace we focused instead on ways that we could help them build the necessary work expereince, skills and references.
By incorporating unpaid work into our formula and encourage volunteering through the concept of Time Trade, we identified ways to:-
1) provide a measure of value and recognition for the development of a peer mentoring scheme, using time credits.
Enlisting alumni to mentor upcoming graduates about work life and career paths. Those graduates, in turn, trade their time to perhaps tutor fellow students who in turn again volunteer in their community and build valuable work skills.
2) provide incentive and reward to encourage more young people to volunteer, using time credits.
We believe volunteer work develops a service orientated work ethic and skills that assist the study to work transition. Some of the skills we know volunteers can develop include:-
Leadership & team building skills
Relationship building skills
Communication skills
Negotiation skills
Creative thinking skills
Organisation & time management skills
As Social Development and Employment Minister Paula Bennett points out encouraging Gen Y to become involved in our communities creates win-win situations. Her comments about the Community Max Scheme could as easily apply to Worknow:-
“This is all about providing opportunities – we see this as a very positive approach to addressing youth unemployment while helping fund useful community projects… I believe this is a win-win situation.”
Where we differ is that we intend the growth of youth volunteers to be a permanent fixture of tomorrows communities hence the development of out Time Trade platform.
The abstract we submitted for a workshop at this years Volunteering NZ conference has been accepted.
Volunteering Unleashed – New times bring new approaches is the title of biennial New Zealand National Volunteering Conference. The conference, organised by Volunteering New Zealand, will take place 28 – 29 October 2009 in Wellington Town Hall. For more information on this years conference check out the Volunteering New Zealand Website
The abstract aligns with the one of two conference themes:
Volunteering Tomorrow: New Opportunities – new ways for volunteering
And will incorporate concepts on:-
* Generational diversity
* Volunteering in community development
* New and interesting ways of doing volunteering
It goes something (exactly) like this…
Using networking technology to connect with Gen Y volunteers
It irks me that people and media feel justified in deriding our generation. Almost daily I read about how lazy, fickle, disloyal and demanding generation Y is yet so rarely is voice given to the truth that we Gen Y have different attitudes, and workplace expectations to the existing generations.
It seems, my entire generation now has a point to prove and the best way I can see to do that is to overcome the negativity, choose lifestyle and community over career, step around the square box and do exactly what we are disliked for. Be different, challenge the status quo and find better, new ways to get work done. Perhaps these traits which appear as weaknesses may indeed be indicators of our strengths.
Disloyal vs Adaptive
Lazy vs Lifestyle
Demanding vs Achievement orientated
Long hours vs Get the job done
Employee vs Entrepreneur
Love us or hate us 10 years from now we will represent almost 40% of the New Zealand workforce. Our entrepreneurial spirit makes us increasingly willing and able to take risks, our education has armed us with knowledge and insight and today’s technology allows us to connect, share and work together in new, more effective ways.
Volunteering allows us to help others while building valuable work skills that will help us transition from study to work life. All we need do is connect with these volunteer opportunities and by connect we mean, online.
Worknow Bio
Aspiring to build a world class business that helps people and effects change Joshua, Jamie & Renee are a passionate, talented, new venture team with over 14 years combined experience in online development and marketing.
As veterans of web 2.0 and the social networking movement they believe social networking technology can help foster and harness the collective potential of existing communities and help people find, connect and work together.
Today they are here to discuss what it means to be Gen Y in today’s workforce and how volunteering can support young people in the transition from study to work.
Being Maori, I was raised with a cultural notion of collective and collaborative action.
As a child my mum and her brother and sisters would spend hours developing their collective world view. To onlookers it could have seemed that they simply talked and argued, often, about the same issues.
Yet, such a simplistic point of view belies the nuances of tribal etiquette that are integral to creating collective purpose. Simple rules that can and should be applied throughout society. For instance:-
When making a decision or deciding on a course of action that affects others, everyone is allowed the chance to voice their opinion.
Inevitably multiple opinions leads to conflict but it is important to recognise this as part of the process, rather than a problem. The discussion should continue for as long as takes for everyone to be heard.
It’s not about majority rule, tribal communities were never a democracy. Leaders must make decisions for others to follow.
Followers need not necessarily agree because in having their voice heard and in listening to others there now exists a shared understanding of why the decision is made.
Tribal etiquette can help build a shared sense of purpose and strengthen teams when we:-
Encourage and support collaborative process that openly allow people to offer their opinion or point of view.
Recognise that conflict is natural and inevitable, it can even be constructive. Note though, it has taken me many years to realise that many people do not share this understanding.
Don’t take conflict too personally, we all have the right to disagree.
Value constructive criticism, what better way to refine and craft ones thinking than to have it challenged.
Worknow is a community and marketplace to help people find, connect and work together
The greater our collective purpose the more shared intelligence we build together the stronger we become.
I have aspired to building a startup company since the day I realised that I could positively help people by creating new jobs. Thank you, Arthur Jordan (FiL) for broadening my view of the world to include enterprise development and inspiring me to purse what is now a passion for new ventures
Connecting with others
Since then I have orientated towards other successful entrepreneurs and outstanding leaders who have also taught and inspired me:-
This includes the two talented young men with whom I have the privilege of working:
* Jamie Mac Donald
* Joshua Vial
Not Y but We – Generation Change Agents
I am inspired and excited to have met many rising stars of late and I looking forward to meeting and working along side many more of you in the future.
We do not need research or statistics to know that we, the youngest generation in the workforce, are the future of new business creation in Aotearoa.
The more we work together the stronger we are. I hope to find others that share this belief and connect us so that we can help each other.
About the Author
I was blessed with a family that taught me the importance of love and faith, adventure and trust. I am eternally grateful for the people that I love. I can never thank you all enough but I love you and I trust that love is enough.
Social innovation refers to new strategies, concepts and organisations that meet social needs which in our case, influenced by economic recession, means the need to support communities and help people find work.
Although there are already volunteer networks, community and business groups that contribute tirelessly to this need, we believe social networking technology can help foster and harness the collective potential of existing communities and distributed groups by providing a way for people to easily find, connect and work with each other.
Time Trading a.k.a Time Banking
Time Trading a.k.a Time Banking is simply about spending an hour doing something for somebody in your community. In recognition for your contribution you receive one Time Credit which you can then gift or trade, with other members of the community, in exchange for their talent and time. It’s a simple idea, but it has powerful ripple effects in building community connections.
When times get tough, our most important asset is a resilient and supportive community. More secure than money in the bank, and more long-lasting than storing food and water; creating a more self sufficient community is the smartest investment we can make now… they strengthen the community by creating an incentive and market for people to help each other. Source
Worknow
We are building a user friendly, online solution to help people find, connect and work together, in new ways. One of the first services available incorporates the concept of Time Trading via the provision of an online system to automate the transfer of time credits between Community Members.
Today’s social networking tools will foster and harness the collective potential of existing communities and distributed work groups by helping us to create, connect and collaborate as project teams, regardless of time or place. They need simply be applied by private business’ in conjunction with government to enhance New Zealand’s productivity.
No longer limited by time or place or disadvantaged by the costs of travel, the concept of using networking tools to facilitate government procurement offers SME’s and dispersed project teams the ability to compete with larger corporations at an unprecedented level.
Job Summit Agenda for Action
The Minister of Commerce, in consultation with Ministers of Finance, Economic Development and State Services are looking to lead the rapid reform government of procurement processes to improve access for small and medium sized enterprises (SME’s). Such reform looks to mirror the actions taken by the Australian government to boost production and jobs.
Nearly $4 billion worth of NSW government goods and services including uniforms, cars and even trains, will have to be sourced from Australian companies in order to boost local production and jobs, in an upcoming budget announcement that has been welcomed by Australian unions.
Maritime Union of New Zealand General Secretary Trevor Hanson says this idea should be adopted immediately in New Zealand.
“We have watched the collapse of LWR recently with the loss of large numbers of jobs – so why are we not insisting that Government requirements for uniforms and clothing go through this and other local companies?” Source
At Worknow we support the move by government to reform the procurement process and are developing an online marketplace to help SME’s connect with such work opportunities.
Governments including the USA and Australia are touting “green collar” jobs as a way to create new forms of work and aid economic recovery. The ever expanding Green sector encompasses industry and fields from engineering and planning to science and management, from construction to manufacturing and retail of alternative energy sources such as solar, wind and wave energy.
Copenhagen Climate Summit 2009
This year the environment will receive some serious attention with the international effort to address climate change culminating with the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, 7-18 December.
Already campaigns supporting environmental reform are in full swing. Global Environmental, Humanitarian and Animal Welfare organisations are taking a united stand to raise awareness on climate change.
Celebrities encourage people to Sign on with slogans from the likes of Ex NIWA Jim Salinger stating “The Science is bloody obvious”.
And with a ground swell of support, grass-root movements such as 350Aotearoa freeze sees people of all ages and backgrounds taking a statue like stand, to raise awareness and get people to question “what’s all this about?”
Growth of Contract Jobs in Green Market
Indeed, increased environmental awareness bodes well for the emerging Green industry which is already proving that it can create new jobs. Not only is the expanding industry creating “employment” but contract work too.
The green market has historically been one of permanent job placements…However, as the field broadens we are seeing more opportunities for contractors as engineers become more involved in the space, innovation creates short-term opportunities and many organisations opt for a more flexible workforce in light of the uncertainty of economic downturn. Source
While the UK is heralding the flexibility and creativity, for which contractors are known, as the potential savior of UK economy the benefits of outsourcing and contract work are also being recognised here in Aotearoa. Hence, it is likely that with the growth of Green Industry, we too will experience growth in the number of contract opportunities.
Contractors Marketplace
At Worknow we support and encourage a more flexible, entrepreneurial work ethic and are here to help contractors find, connect and collaborate on project work opportunities.
