Write for Us!

Youth Employability Aotearoa (YEA) is a national collective of people and organisations with a vision to support every young person (rangatahi) build the confidence and skills they need to flourish in the rapidly changing world of life, learning and work.

An important way we do this is by capturing the success stories of providers across Aotearoa and sharing them on our website and on social media platforms. We believe these stories provide new perspectives and ideas on how to improve their employability outcomes with rangatahi.

YEA is committed to serving our readers with diverse perspectives. We especially welcome stories from writers of historically underrepresented groups, Māori and Pasifika and wish to encourage the work of rangatahi.

Rangatahi Māori writers

We are looking for three rangatahi Māori writers (18-24 years). One located in Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland), the second in Bay of Plenty and the third in Ōtautahi (Christchurch).

Each writer will be responsible for writing one story per month for the next ten months. Each story will profile a programme led by a local Māori employability provider in which rangatahi are achieving success as Māori. The writers will work alongside the YEA Communications Manager and editor and the Education Māori Manager (Te Hononga Akoranga – COMET).

We are budgeting for each story to take approximately eight hours to complete. This would include searching out the provider, identifying the practices/values/people that will be showcased; visiting and interviewing the people and then writing the story of up to 1000 words. The role will be paid at $25 an hour. There will be reimbursement for travel and other costs. Ideally, high resolution photos can be taken on your phone or by camera. Photos can also be sourced from the organisation you are writing about.

This is an excellent development opportunity for a young person with good communication and writing skills, he/she will need to be a self-starter, able to work with little oversight and able to self -manage. Most importantly the person needs to be confident and connected with Te Ao Māori and ideally be fluent in te reo.

Expression of Interest

If you are interested in this opportunity, please forward a short expression of interest to Shirley Johnson, at [email protected]. Please attach your CV and an example of your writing.