A new Government programme aimed at delivering literacy and numeracy skills to seasonal workers from the Pacific Islands has been welcomed by a Central Otago co-operative which employs overseas workers.
Seasonal Solutions manager Craig Howard said any initiative offering extra training to Pacific workers was a good thing.
Seasonal Solutions is a grower-owned co-operative which was set up five years ago to co-ordinate the labour needs of orchardists and grape growers and match them with workers.
It deals with grape growers and orchardists in Central Otago and in Marlborough.
Prime Minister John Key recently announced the establishment of a pilot programme offering skills training to visiting Pacific workers taking part in the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) Scheme.
He said training would be conducted outside work hours and focus on literacy, numeracy and financial understanding.
Training would initially cater for up to 300 RSE workers in Marlborough, Hawkes Bay and Bay of Plenty during the next two years.
If it was successful, it would be expanded to cover more workers in other parts of the country, including Central Otago, he said.
"Anything like this that increases the skills of the visiting workers and increases their understanding, is a good thing," Mr Howard said.
"Any extra training is good and skills in financial understanding, literacy and numeracy will be of benefit, no matter what jobs they are doing, so I think this is a great initiative."
In the past year, Seasonal Solutions employed nearly 600 Vanuatuans to work in this country.
Of that number, 350 worked on Marlborough vineyards and about 230 were employed on vineyards and orchards in Queenstown and Central Otago.
More than 5500 people from around the Pacific worked on New Zealand vineyards and orchards last year.
Mr Key said the money earned by those people was an "important lifeline" for Pacific economies and the skills the workers took home would also help economic development.
Under the RSE programme, organisations can apply to recruit workers from certain Pacific Island nations to fill labour shortages in this country.
